Violet Grimes
by Fairytailfanatic247
Summary: Violet is the twin sister of Rick Grimes. Her past is confusing, but her artistic talents are plain to see. Start reading to see how her relationship with Daryl Dixon develops throughout season 1.
1. Tell It To The Frogs Part 1

What can I say about my twin? He's loyal, funny, protective, supportive, dedicated, etc. The list could go on forever. He's a sheriff deputy with the King County Sheriff's Department, and he has let me stay with him and his family for the past year. Lori needed some help with Carl, and I drove him to and from school. I started living with them after I broke up with my boyfriend. It was mutual. We just were not happy, so we decided to go our separate ways. I'm not lying. Our relationship lasted about five years. Anyways, I was only supposed to stay for a couple months, but Carl didn't want me to leave. I told my brother and Lori that I would stay and pitch in for however long they would let me stay. I am sure that I would have spent years more there, but before the dead started walking there was a day that none of our family was expecting.

That fateful day started like any other. I woke up, got ready for the day, woke Carl up, had cereal for breakfast, made sure that the kid had all of his stuff, and I drove him to school. When I arrived back at the house we started talking about the day ahead of us. Lori and I had actually planned a bit of a spa day. We were going to get our hair done, and get mani-pedi's. I was super close with her. We could talk for hours about nothing. Before we left for our appointments, around noon, I told Lori that I felt like something bad had happened to Rick. She thought I was freaking out about nothing, though. Right after I told her about my feelings, we got a phone call. Lori picked up the receiver and greeted the person on the other end of the line. I watched as her expression completely changed. She didn't talk throughout the rest of the call. She just stared at me in disbelief. I tried to get her to tell me what was wrong.

When she finally started talking to me she was frantic. She told me to cancel our hair and nail appointments, and she told me to pick up Carl and meet her at the hospital. After picking up Carl I rushed to the hospital and met Lori in the waiting room. She was standing with Shane, Rick's partner at work. My thoughts were confirmed. Rick had been shot while on duty. The doctors were able to fix him up, but he fell into a coma. I slipped into a slight depression after that. The rest of the family just thought that I was grieving, so they gave me space. This only made me feel more alone. I didn't want to say that I felt that way because I knew that everyone was grieving.

Weeks after the incident, Shane came busting through the front door of the house, and he told us to pack up anything we needed. He said that we were heading towards Atlanta. I packed up some clothes, feminine products, books, sketchpad, drawing and coloring tools, a notebook, a box of purple hair dye, and some nail polish. After I packed my stuff I helped Carl and Lori pack their things. We all piled into Shane's car and we were off. Shane and Lori sat in the front and Carl and I were in the back.

We were quite a ways away from Atlanta when we hit a massive traffic jam. We sat in it for hours until Shane got out of the car. He walked through the tree line on the side of the road and Lori followed him. When they came back, they had the most defeated expressions on their faces. I asked them what was wrong, and Shane said that there was no way that we were going to Atlanta any more. Shane pulled out of the line of the line of traffic. We ended up at the quarry just outside of Atlanta. Some people had actually followed us to this place. We all got out of our vehicles and watched as Atlanta was made into a wasteland. If there had been anyone in that city, they were dead now.

Us, and all of the people that followed us got to know each other that night. Including me, there were 20 people. I gravitated towards Carol and Sophia. Sophia was about the age of Carl, and Carol felt like an older sister already. I did notice that there were two guys that sat far from the group. No one went over to them, so I took it upon myself to greet them and make them feel like part of the group. I excused myself and walked over to them. I stood in front of the younger man and held my hand out for him to shake as I introduced myself. The older guy snickered as the younger one, who I learned was named Daryl, shook my hand. He introduced himself and his brother Merle. I smiled at them, and I tried to start conversations. Daryl didn't really talk much, and Merle was just a pig. Merle's comments towards me convinced me to move back to where Carol and Sophia were sitting.

To be honest I felt like there was more to Daryl, though. I wanted to hear more of his voice. I wanted to look into his eyes and watch his emotions run freely. His face always seemed to hold the same neutral expression, but eyes are the window to everyone's soul. A couple weeks went by and I actually got Daryl to open up to me a little bit. I asked him to teach me how to track and hunt.

The group is doing well, but we have started running low on supplies. Glenn, Andrea, Morales, T-Dog, Jacqui, and Merle were sent on the mission to the city. After they left, Daryl and I went out on a hunt. There isn't much talking, but I like spending this time with him. I love watching him track his prey. It is such a turn on. When he is in the zone I can't help but watch every muscle in his arm twitch with the slightest movement. The sweat, caused by the heat of the day, causes his skin to glisten in the light of the sun streaming through the trees. Sometimes I can see the edge of a few scars peeking out of the arm hole of his shirt. I hope one day I learn who caused them.

After collecting a bunch of squirrels, we finally found a beautiful doe. Daryl quietly turns to me and holds a finger up to his mouth. He turns back to the deer as he aims his crossbow and shot at it, but it moves. The bolt lands in its rear end. We run after it as he shot at it again. It hits around where the first one did. After it ran off we start to track it. When it gets too dark to see anything we take turns sleeping under the blanket that I packed in my bag. Of course, he didn't get much sleep. I can tell that he tries to get some shut eye, but I don't think he has much trust that I would be able to fend off any walkers. When he does fall into some kind of unconsciousness I take a moment to gaze at his features. I must have been staring too long because I heard his lovely voice work its way to my ear.

"I can feel you staring at me, Vi." He says with his eyes still closed. I smile and look around to see if anything dangerous is around. He sits up with a heavy sigh and we both sit in silence until morning breaks. We start up a small fire and cook up a couple of the squirrels we caught yesterday. I used to think that this was gross thing to eat, but it's actually not bad. After we put out the fire we start tracking down the deer again. A couple hours later we hear a scream and head towards it. We brake through the brush to a small clearing where a lot of guns and other weapons are being pointed at us.

"Woah, it's just us." I say. Daryl walks into the small clearing. And sees the deer that we had been tracking.

"Son of a bitch." He says as he heads over to the kill. "That's my deer." I haven't really looked around at the group, but I can feel a new person among them. I follow Daryl over to the deer carcass. "Look at it, all gnawed on by this filthy, disease bearin', motherless, poxy, bastard." He kicked the body of the walker with every insult.

"Calm down son, that's not helpin'." I hear Dale say. Daryl walks over to him.

"What d'you know about it, old man?" Shane put the butt of his gun up to block Daryl from getting too close to Dale. "You take that stupid hat and go back to 'on golden pond'?" Daryl turns back to the deer. "We been trackin' this deer for miles." He starts to take his bolts out of the doe's rear. "Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison." I inspect the deer and try to figure out a way to save some of the meat.

"What d'ya think?" I point around where the walker was feasting. "D'ya think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?"

"I would not risk that." Shane says.

"It's a damn shame." Daryl says before turning towards camp. "We got some squirrel, 'bout a dozen or so. That'll have to do." He looks down at the head of the walker, which was separated from its body. It starts moving and some of the women start to freak out. "Come on people, what the hell?" He aims his crossbow at the moving head, and hits it in the eye. I go over and remove the bolt from said eye, and hand it back to Daryl. He nods to me in a silent thank you as he wipes off the walker blood. "Its gotta be the brain." He clarifies to the group. "Don't ch'all know nothin'?" He says walking past the new guy towards the camp.

It's then that I notice that the new part of the group is someone I already know. My heart flutters, and I can feel my eyes watering as I bring my hand up to my mouth. If it's meant to prevent the sounds of my sobs from leaking out, then it did a horrible job. I launch myself into the arms of my twin, my brother. He embraces me in the best bear hug. I can't control the rivers seeping from my eyes.

"I knew it was you, Violet." He pulls back to look at my face and smiles. "Only you would keep that purple hair at a time like this." I giggle, as we pull apart. I wipe the tears from my face and we walk to camp behind everyone else. "Hey, Vi." He says to get my attention as I walk next to him.

"Yeah?"

"What's Daryl's temper like?" He asks me. I look to Daryl.

"I don't really know. I've never really seen him too upset. It's his brother that has a horrid temper." Rick gets quiet, and an awkward silence falls between us. I wonder why he's acting so weird, when I realize that Merle is nowhere to be seen. We get to camp as Daryl starts yelling out for Merle. I turn to my brother as he and Shane steps up to Daryl.

"Daryl?" Shane says, getting Daryl's attention. "Slow up a bit. I need to talk to you."

"'Bout what?" Daryl stands in the middle of camp. Just about everyone in the camp is quiet and listening to what's about to happen.

"'Bout Merle. There was a uh, there's a problem in Atlanta." Shane says. Daryl looks around the group, then back at Shane.

"Is he dead?" he's pacing now. I feel awful.

"Not sure." Shane replies.

"He either is or he ain't!" I'm actually getting a little confused, now. I turn to Rick, and he jumps into the conversation.

"There's no easy way to say this, so I'll just say it."

"Who're you?" Daryl asks.

"Rick Grimes." He looks over at me for a split second before turning back to Rick.

"Rick Grimes, you got something you wanna tell me?"

"Your brother was a danger to us all." I don't doubt for a second that Merle started up something with just about anyone who went on that mission to the city. "So, I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there." I saw T-Dog across the camp. He's bringing a bunch of pieces of wood for our fires.

"Hold on." Daryl said, turning away from Rick and wiping at his face. I can't tell if he's wiping away tears or sweat. "Let me process this." He then turns back to Rick. "You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof, and you left him there!?" I look down to the ground. This is a lot to process. I haven't seen Daryl this upset in all of the time I have known him. But I get it. If someone did the same thing to Rick, I would be pissed.

"Yeah" Rick says looking away from Daryl. I watch Daryl chew on his bottom lip as he steps back a little. I know what he's thinking of doing, so I step closer to Rick. Suddenly he throws all of the squirrels we gathered from his shoulder at Rick. Rick ducks out of the way, but Daryl starts coming at him. I grab Rick's arm to pull him away as Shane tackles the hunter to the ground.

"Hey!" T-Dog yells as he drops the pieces of wood and tries to come over to help. I notice that Daryl pulls out his knife as he stands.

"Watch the knife!" I say warning everyone. I like Daryl, but he needs to calm down so we can fix the situation. My brother dodges the first swipe of Daryl's knife. Rick releases his arm from my grasp. As Daryl tries to cut him, he grabs the hand holding the knife and twists it. Shane joins the fight to help restrain the rage-filled redneck. Daryl is now in Shane's choke hold, and Rick is in possession of the knife.

"Okay, okay." Shane says trying to calm Daryl down.

"You'd best let me go!" Daryl yells as he continues to try and fight.

"Nah! I think it's better if I don't." Shane replies. I watch as one of my newest friends is brought to the ground once again.

"Choke hold's illegal." Daryl says still trying to fight back. Why won't he just give up and calm down.

"Yeah, you can file a complaint." Finally I step in front of my brother and crouch down in front of Daryl.

"Come on, D. I know for a fact they can keep this up for as long as it is going to take for you to either calm down or pass out. I'm sure my brother would like to have a calm discussion with you." I said gesturing to Rick. He looks at me with those gorgeous blue eyes. "D'ya think we can manage that?" He doesn't answer as he looks away from me. "Do. You. Think we can manage that, Mr. Dixon?" He finally nods and Shane releases him from the choke hold. I stand up and back away. "I hope you have a good reason, Rick." I say as I cross my arms over my chest, and he takes my place crouching in front of Daryl.

"What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others." Very true statement.

"It's not Rick's fault." We all look over at T-Dog. "I had the key. I dropped it."

"You couldn't pick it up?" Daryl retorts.

"Well, I dropped it in a drain." Daryl scoffs at T-Dog's clarification. Slowly he stands up off the ground.

"If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't." He walks around the outside of the semi-circle that formed as he stares down T-Dog.

"Well, maybe this will." Daryl halted his movement. "Look, I chained the door to the roof so the geeks couldn't get at him. With a padlock." Daryl still doesn't look happy.

"It's gotta count for something." Rick jumps in. Daryl turns to him then back to T-Dog. For a second he makes eye contact with me. He wipes at his left eye with the back of his wrist. Again, I can't tell if he's crying or sweating into his eye.

"Hell with all y'all!" He gestures at everyone. "Just tell me where he is so's I can go get 'im." His voice was slightly cracking now. Other than Merle, and maybe me, Daryl didn't really have friends in this camp. Merle and him usually kept to themselves. I step up next to Rick.

"He'll show you." I look up at my brother, and he looks at me. "Isn't that right?" I know my brother too well. I knew he was planning to go back in to get Merle anyway. He wouldn't leave someone defenseless and trapped on a roof. No matter how awful said person is. Rick looks around the group before answering.

"I'm goin' back." He says, confirming my thoughts. I see Lori climb into the RV. I know she doesn't want to have him go away again, but it is just the way my brother is. He is a good person to the core. Daryl walks past everyone to gather some things to bring with him into the city. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief as they continue doing what they'd been doing before Daryl and I came back to camp. Rick heads to Lori's tent to get dressed, but I stay in the same spot. Shane walks up to me.

"Good job back there, Vi." I just look at him. "You really know how to calm down a redneck." He says with a sarcastic tone.

"Fuck you, Shane!" I yell storming away from him and entering the RV. Okay, let me explain. After my boyfriend and I broke up Rick thought it would be a good idea to set me up on a blind date with his partner from work. We went on a few dates, but it didn't really work out. Then, one day I was feeling down and I decided to call someone. You guessed it, Shane. We became friends with benefits for a while, until the day Rick was shot. As you remember, I pulled away from everyone at that point. Right now, I believe Shane is jealous that I'm closer with Daryl than I am with him.

"You okay, Vi?" Lori asks from her seat at the RV table.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I turn to Dale. "Hey, you still have those things I left here?" he looks at me like a deer in headlights for a split second before remembering what I was talking about.

"Oh, yeah." He walks across the RV and opens up a cabinet. He pulls out the small sketchpad and pencil, and he makes his way over to me. "Here you go. I promise you, no one touched it since you've been gone." I smile at him as I take my sketchpad and pencil from him. "Except for me." I look at him with wide eyes. "I'm sorry. I couldn't resist, and if I do say so myself you are very talented." I don't like when people, who aren't me, see my unfinished pieces. Just about every piece I've started since the world went to shit has remained unfinished. Even the portraits I have drawn of just about everyone in the camp.

"It's weird to think that my talents are even _less_ useful now that the dead are walking." We laugh a bit as I exit the RV. Lori soon follows and goes to help Amy with something. I end up sitting by the unlit fire pit to do a little more sketching. I lose track of time until Rick comes out of Lori's tent in his Sherriff's uniform. I'm watching as he argues a bit with Shane when I feel someone else standing next to me. I look up at the person to see that it's Daryl. It seems like he's looking for something; another bolt for his crossbow maybe?

"Why would you risk your life for a douche bag like Merle Dixon?" I glare at Shane from my seat.

"Hey, choose your words more carefully." Daryl warns pointing a bolt at him.

"No, I did." He glances down at me for a split second before looking back at Daryl. "Douche bag's what I meant." Shane then turns his attention back to Rick. "Merle Dixon," He says quietly. "The man wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dyin' of thirst."

"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me. I can't let a man die of thirst. Me." I feel so proud of my brother. He's still the same. I wonder how long it'll last in the world that we're in now? "Thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap. That's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being." By this time Daryl has sat on the tiny seat next to mine, and he starts cleaning his crossbow and bolts with a rag.

"So, you and Daryl? That's your big plan?" Lori pipes in. Rick pauses and looks around at everyone who has come to see what his plan is. He sees Glenn and stops to give him a look. I smile and chuckle lightly, because I know what Rick wants the pizza delivery boy to do.

"Oh, come on?" Glenn is so not happy, and who can blame him?

"You know the way." Glenn takes off his hat as Rick continues. "You've been there before. In and out, no problem. You said so yourself." Glenn smooths his hair down then places his cap back on his head. "I know it's not fair for me to ask, I know that, but I'd feel a lot better with you along. I know she would too." Rick says gesturing to Lori.

"That's just great. Now you're gonna risk three men, huh?" Shane says.

"Four." T-Dog speaks up. Daryl looks between and behind us to where T-Dog is standing.

"My day just gets better and better, don't it?" Daryl scoffs.

"You see anybody else here stepping up to save your brother's cracker ass?" T-Dog spits back.

"Why you?" Daryl asks, still cleaning the bolts in his hand.

"You wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language." T-Dog and Merle have never gotten along, so maybe he felt guilty for dropping the key.

"That's four." Dale says, stating the obvious.

"It's not just four." Shane steps in again. "You're putting every single one of us at risk. Just know that, Rick. Come on, you saw that walker. It was here. It was in camp. They're moving out of the cities. They come back, we need every able body we've got. We need 'em here. We need 'em to protect camp." He did have a point.

"It seems to me what you really need most here are more guns." Rick says. This is when I stick my pencil close to the binding of my sketchpad, and I close it to pay a little more attention.

"Right, the guns." Glenn says as he steps forward.

"Wait, what guns?" Shane asks. I look to Rick as I wait for him to answer the question.

"Six shot-guns, two high-powered rifles, over a dozen handguns. I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left. I dropped the bag in Atlanta when I got swarmed. It's just sitting there on the street, waiting to be picked up." Wow. How had no one thought to take the guns before evacuating the town?

"Ammo?" Shane asked.

"700 rounds assorted." Rick answers.

"You went through hell to find us." Lori says. Rick looks towards her. "You just got here, and you're gonna turn around and leave?" At least Lori had more time with him. I just came back a few hours ago. My brother sighs and looks to the ground. I know that he's going to go anyway. No matter what she says he'll find a reason to go back to the city.

"Dad, I don't want you to go." Carl says. That is just heart wrenching.

"To hell with the guns." Lori speaks up again. "Shane is right. Merle Dixon? He's not worth one of your lives, even with guns thrown in." Lori stands from her seat as Rick walks past me and towards her. "Tell me. Make me understand."

"I owe a debt to a man I met and his little boy." Lori looks a bit flustered and frantic. "Lori, if they hadn't taken me in, I'd have died. It's because of them that I made it back to you at all. They said they'd follow me to Atlanta. They'll walk into the same trap I did if I don't warn them."

"What's stoppin' you?" Lori asks.

"The walkie-talkie, the one in the bag I dropped. He's got the other one. Our plan was to connect when they got closer."

"These are our walkies?" Shane asks.

"Yeah."

"So use the C.B. What's wrong with that?" I point out.

"The C.B.'s fine." Shane answers me. "It's the walkies that suck to crap. Date back to the 70s, don't match any other bandwidth. Not even the scanners in our cars."

"Well that's convenient." I say.

"I need that bag." Rick says. Lori looks to the ground in defeat as Rick kneels in front of Carl. "Okay?" My nephew thinks about it for a bit before nodding his approval. "All right." He pats Carl on the head. As he looks to me I nod my approval. Everyone dispersed. As Rick walked up to me I stand up with my drawing materials held in my arms, which are crossed in front of me. "I'm sorry I have to leave so soon."

"I guess it's okay, but only if you come back alive." I smile and jokingly punch him in the shoulder. He snickers a bit before heading over to the box truck that they plan to take into the city.

"So, he's your brother, huh?" asks the hunter from where he still sat. I sit back down before answering.

"Yup. That's my twin brother." I answer as I go back to my sketching.

"So which one of you is older?" I look over to him and smile.

"I am." Whenever I tell people that I am older than Rick they don't believe me. "By about three minutes."

"I guess you really wanted to get out of there." We both broke out into a fit of laughter. Suddenly my sketchpad is pulled away from me. I look towards the thief beside me.

"This is pretty good." I see that he is flipping through my sketches, and I grab my sketchpad back from him.

"Listen, Dixon, I don't even let my nephew look at this sketchpad."

"Why?" I just look at him.

"It's like looking into someone's diary." He looked a bit confused. "All of my thoughts, feelings, and insecurities are pumped into my work. I know others might not understand it, but I do. It's like being fully exposed to anyone who looks at it." He nodded his head showing that he understands at least a little bit. He stands up and heads towards the box truck without another word. Carol, Andrea, Jacqui, and Sofia, who start up a fire to cook something, soon join me. I don't really look at them. I just look down at the page in front of me.

It was the picture that I drew of him and his brother. I started it the night after meeting them. I always thought that their interactions with each other were interesting. It was like Daryl was a little puppy that followed Merle around and did everything his older brother told him to. But there was no adoration. Daryl didn't want to be Merle, well maybe in some aspects, but mostly he wanted to be different. It was like he was studying what his brother did and said, and was able to filter himself or change his demeanor. Yes they're brothers, and as Merle's brother he feels as if he has an obligation to love him. But, that doesn't mean that he likes everything that his brother does.

"Why the long face, Violet?" Asked the meek and frail woman across the fire from me. I look up at Carol and slap on a smile.

"It's nothing." I look back down at my sketchpad and turn the page to the vignette of Daryl. I am so happy he didn't get this far. This is probably my favorite piece in this whole sketchpad.

"Oh, I know for a fact it is not nothing." She replies and I look back at her. I close my sketchpad and fully turn towards the other people near me. "Any time someone gives that answer, especially women, they mean the opposite." I chuckle a bit before letting out a sigh.

"Well, I guess it's about Rick. I just got him back hours ago, and now I might lose him again." The women are quiet.

"I don't think that's all." Carol says. I look at her; confused. She looks at something behind me. The box truck's horn is pressed and I turn around to see Daryl in the back of the truck.

"C'mon, lets go!" He yells. I snap my head to look back at her.

"No." I deny her thoughts. "He's not really my type." It isn't a lie. My parents always pushed me towards guys that had a steady job, and were clean cut. I've never been interested in men like Daryl, at least not in a romantic way. But something about Daryl has always attracted me. I just haven't figured out what, yet.

"It's the end of the world." Jacqui pipes in. I look over at her. "It's okay to live a little. The abnormal has now become the norm, and who knows how long this whole dead people walking will last." She has a point. "It may never end." She sounds a bit sad as she says that last part in a quieter voice. I hear the door to the box truck shut and the engine rev. I turn back around as the vehicle drives away, hopefully we'll see that truck again with everyone alive and unharmed. Ha! Yeah right. Not in the type of world we live in now.

A/N: So, yes I am all over the place with my stories. I am sorry. I am in the Walking Dead/American Horror Story mood lately. I have had this story stuck in my head for a while, and this is just me actually typing it out and posting it. I hope you guys like it so far. I would love to read what you guys think about it so far.


	2. Tell It To The Frogs Part 2 (Fixed)

After the guys leave for Atlanta, I head down to the quarry. I sit by the edge and I open my sketchpad to another picture that I started a while back. It was a picture of Rick sitting across from me. We had gone to a diner to have some lunch. I had been staying with him and his family for about a week, and I was still getting used to their daily schedule. It was the day he told me that he wanted me to meet someone.

Soon, Carol and the other women come down with loads of laundry. I flip to an empty page and start sketching out the scene. As soon as I get the placement of all of the women along the edge of the quarry some new faces come into view. Shane leads Carl to a spot across the way. They seem to be trying to find something in the water. I sketch them into the scene as well. I look up to check the size difference between my nephew and Shane and I see that the man has waded into the water and started splashing around. He's yelling about frogs or something. I can't really hear from so far away. I chuckle to myself as I look back down to my work.

I start to change Shane's position in the frame from on land next to Carl, to in the water splashing around. After getting enough detail to remember what everything is supposed to look like, for a later date, I head over to the other women to offer my help with the laundry. They give me a crate to sit on and a bucket to start washing the clothing. It is pretty quiet for a bit before Carol breaks the silence.

"I do miss my Maytag." I smile at her comment.

"I miss my Benz. My sat nav." Andrea adds

"I miss my coffeemaker with that dual-drip filter and built-in grinder, honey." Jacqui adds. Now that is something I miss, too.

"My computer and texting." Amy says.

"I miss my vibrator." I say. They all look at me and laugh a little.

"Oh my god." Amy reacts. Carol looks over her shoulder at her husband, Ed. He has been sitting on his ass and watching us this whole time. Then she looks over at me.

"Me too." We all crack up at her response.

"What's so funny?" Ed says as he walks up to us. We all watch him as he approaches.

"Just swapping war stories, Ed." Andrea speaks up. Then we all go back to washing the clothes. I grab a new article and notice that it is a sleeveless, flannel shirt. I have seen Daryl wear a shirt like this before. I bring the shirt to my nose. The scent is earthy and musky. Yup, definitely Daryl's. As I go to dip it in the water I look over to the other women. Only Carol has seen what I did. She smirks at me before looking down at the shirt that she was currently washing. Ed still has not gone back to where he had been sitting before, so I look up at him wondering what he wants. Andrea speaks what I have been thinking. "Problem, Ed?"

"Nothin' that concerns you." Andrea goes back to scrubbing a shirt with the brush as Ed looks toward Carol. "And you ought to focus on your work. This ain't no comedy club." I cannot believe that he talks to his wife that way, but Carol just sits there and takes it like it's normal. We continue to wash the laundry with Ed, the watchdog, over our shoulder. Finally, I have had enough. I stand up with Daryl's shirt still in my hand.

"Ed, tell you what. You don't like how your laundry is done? You're welcome to pitch in and do it yourself." I say as I walk a little closer to him. I toss Daryl's shirt to Ed. "Here." He throws it back at me and it catches me off guard. "Oh!"

"Ain't my job, missy." He states. I am so pissed that I can't speak.

"Andrea, don't." Amy says as Andrea comes up next to me.

"What is your job, Ed?" She asks him. "Sitting on your ass, smoking cigarettes?"

"Well, it sure as hell ain't listening to some uppity smart-mouthed bitch, I'll tell you what." He answers. He looks over to Carol. "C'mon, lets go." Carol starts to stand up.

"I don't think she needs to go anywhere with you, Ed." I say staring right at him.

"And I say it's none of your business." He looks to Carol over our shoulders. "C'mon now. You heard me." I continue to stare down Ed as Andrea tries to talk to Carol.

"Carol."

"Andrea please." Carol says pushing past Andrea. "It doesn't matter."

"Hey," Ed says to get Andrea's attention. "Don't think I won't knock you on your ass just 'cause you're some college-educated cooz, all right?" What did he just say? Did he really just threaten Andrea? That is some bold shit. I know two men who used to be cops. I could report his behavior to the one at camp, and then we'll see who is top dog here. Ed looks to Carol again. "Now you c'mon now, or you gonna regret it later." I just stare at him with rage building up in my body.

"So she can show up with fresh bruises later, Ed?" Jacqui points out from behind us. "Yeah, we've seen them." Ed just laughs it off.

"Stay outta this." He says. "Now c'mon! You know what? This ain't none of y'all's business. You don't wanna keep prodding the bull here, okay? Now I'm done talking. C'mon." He goes to grab Carol's arm.

"No" All of us keep saying as he starts to drag her away.

"Carol, you don't have-" Amy says from the other side of Carol.

"You don't tell me what!" Ed yells at Carol. "I tell you what!" He then smacks Carol right in the face, right in front of us. I can no longer hold my rage back. I form my hand into a fist and I punch the horrible man right in the face. He stumbles back a bit as blood starts to pour out of his nose. "You're gonna pay for that." Ed says as he points towards me. The other women get Carol out of the way as Ed storms towards me. Before he is able to reach me Shane pulls him away from the group, and he tosses the man to the ground. Shane starts punching Ed viciously. I don't want him to stop, but the other girls start to yell for him to. I can hear Carol crying behind me.

Shane stops the onslaught of punches and says something to him before punching him once more. He stands up and kicks the man in the side before stepping away. Andrea loses her grip on Carol, and the woman rushes to her battered husband in tears. Before walking back to camp ahead of us, Shane looks to me. I nod at him and he returns the gesture. I watch as he quickly walks away rubbing the back of his head.

Daryl POV

I pull down the back door of the box truck, to close it, as I start to get a sinking feeling. Once we are on the road, I sit down in a corner. Across the way is the man who 'dropped the key'. How could he do that? He must have done it on purpose. Him and Merle never got along. As we start to slow down I look over at him.

"He better be okay. That's my only word on the matter" I say.

"I told you, the geeks can't get at him." I don't believe him. "Only thing that's gonna get through that door is us." He's so confident, but I still don't believe a word he says. The truck stops as the Chinaman confirms that we can only continue on foot. We all get out and start walking into the city. As we get closer the new guy, apparently Vi's twin brother, starts talking strategy.

"Merle first, or guns?"

"Merle." I say right away. "We ain't even havin' this conversation."

"We are." He says sternly. He turns to the Chinaman. "You know the geography. It's your call."

"Merle's closest." He answers. "The guns would mean doubling back. Merle first." Good. Even if they had picked the opposite I would still go after Merle first. We finally get to the building and we enter the bottom floor. There are mannequins and racks of clothing spread throughout the store. Rick spots one of the geeks and I step forward to get rid of it.

"Damn." I say as I aim my crossbow at it. "You are one ugly skank." I pull the trigger and it goes down. I pull the bolt from its head and we continue on our way to recover Merle. We rush up the staircase and get to the door that leads to the roof. The chains are still intact, so we have to use the bolt cutters. As the chains fall away I kick open the door. "Merle!" I call out. I get no response. I look around the roof and I don't see anyone. "Merle!" I call out again. As I near the place where he was said to be chained up I still can't see anyone. Suddenly I see something I didn't want to see. Merle's right hand was sitting on the ground below the cuffs that kept him here. "No!" I can't hold my emotions back. "No!" I still can't believe that he would do this. "No!" Did he think I wouldn't come lookin' for 'im? I look up at 'the man who dropped the key' and he looked back at me with a mixture of guilt and pity. "No!" I wish Vi we here. "No!" I don't know why I want her here right now, but I do. "No!" Maybe it's because she always knows the right things to say. She can make me feel like everything's going to be okay just by saying the simplest thing. I take a few breaths thinking of her voice. What would she say to me in a situation like this? Then I just give up. The memory of her voice is not enough. I bring my crossbow up and I point it at the man who had a bad case of butter fingers. Then, I feel a gun being pointed at my head. We stay that way, in silence, for about a minute before anyone says anything.

"I won't hesitate." Says the lawman. "I don't care if every walker in the city hears it." I suddenly can't see through the water that is pooling in my eye and I bring my crossbow down. Vi's brother lowers his gun and I take a few breaths before asking something.

"You got a doo-rag or somethin'?" I ask the man I was just ready to kill a second ago. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a bandana. I walk over to my brother's severed hand and I pick it up with the bandana. "I guess the saw blade was too dull for the handcuffs." I pick up the hand by its pinky. "Ain't that a bitch." I set it on the bandana, and I wrap it up. The only one with a bag is the Chinaman, so I put the wrapped up hand in his backpack. "He must've used a tourniquet, maybe his belt." I say walking back over to the hanging cuffs. "Be much more blood if he didn't" I notice a trail of blood drips, so I follow them to the other side of the roof. There is another way back into the building. We go in and walk down a set of stairs "Merle!" I yell. I don't care if I am attracting all of the dead to this place. I want to find my brother, now. "You in here?!" We walk around the building, following the blood trail. We enter a big office and there are two walkers laying fully dead on the floor. "Had enough in 'im to take out these two sumbitches. One handed." I pull the tension wire on my crossbow back and lock it into place. "Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother." I load up a bolt as I continue. "Feed 'im a hammer, he'd crap out nails."

"Any man can pass out from blood loss, no matter how tough he is." Vi's brother says. We search some more rooms.

"Merle!" I yell.

"We're not alone here, remember?" The lawman loudly whispers.

"Screw that. He could be bleeding out." I say, looking around the room. "You said so yourself." I enter the room and follow the trail of blood to a stove with an open flame coming from the burners. The lawman picks up something from the stove to look at something burned to it.

"What's that burned stuff?" the Chinaman asks.

"Skin." Answers the former sheriff. "He cauterized the stump."

"Told you he was tough." I say. "Ain't nobody who can kill Merle but Merle."

"Don't take that on faith. He's lost a lot of blood." I can't believe this guy is Vi's brother. He's so negative.

"Yeah?" I look a little farther into the room and notice a window that has been smashed. "Didn't stop 'im from bustin' out of this death trap." I lean on the windowsill and look out the hole as everyone else follows me.

"He left the building?" The Asian kid asks. "Why the hell would he do that?"

"Why wouldn't he? He's out there alone as far as he knows. Doing what he's got to do. Survivin'." I answer.

"You call that survivin'?" Asks my least favorite person in this group. "Just wanderin' out in the streets, maybe passin' out? What are his odds out there?"

"No worse than being handcuffed and left to rot by you sorry pricks." I say as I look to him and the Asian kid. I turn to Vi's brother. "You couldn't kill 'im. Ain't so worried about some dumb dead bastard."

"What about a thousand dumb dead bastards? Different story?" the lawman said back to me.

"Why don't you take a tally? Do what you want. I'm gonna go get 'im." I try to move past him, but he stops me.

"Daryl wait." He says.

"Get your hands off me! You can't stop me."

"I don't blame you." He says. "He's family, I get that. I went through hell to find mine. I know exactly how you feel." Maybe it's genetics, but somehow what he is saying has calmed me down a bit. He hasn't completely calmed me down like Vi would have, but at least I can think straight. "He can't get far with that injury. We could help you check a few blocks around but only if we keep a level head."

"I could do that." I say after taking a few deep breaths. We turn to the others.

"Only if we get those guns first." T-Dog says. "I'm not strolling the streets of Atlanta with just my good intentions, okay?" We all agree as we set up a plan to get those guns.

A/N: I would really like to find out what you guys like and don't like so far. I have to say that I plan on not getting them together until mid to late season 2. Stay tuned.


	3. Vatos Part 1

Violet's POV

Once everything settled down at camp I decided to revisit a few of my sketches. I set up a folding chair in the shade of the RV, and I pull out my sketch book and pencil. I open my sketchbook and look for a picture I am interested in working on. I get to the vignette of Daryl. I hunch over the book in my lap as I start to nit pick everything about his face. Every line has to be correct. About fifteen minutes in my neck starts to hurt, so I sit up and try to massage the pain away. I look up to the roof of the RV and I notice that Dale is looking at something through his binoculars. I'm curious, so I climb the ladder on the back of the RV to see what he is so interested in.

"Hey, old-timer." I say to get his attention. "What's so interesting over there?" I ask, pointing in the direction he had been looking before.

"I'm not quite sure." He holds out his binoculars to me. "What are your thoughts on that?" he asks pointing to the hill. I look through the device, and I see Jim digging. I lower the binoculars and look towards Dale.

"What is he doing?" I ask.

"Beats me." We both look in the direction of Jim up on the hill. "But, I plan on finding out." I nod, not looking at him.

"I'll keep watch up here while you go check it out." I look to him and he nods before getting off of the RV, and he heads over to talk to Jim. I watch through the binoculars as Dale goes to confront Jim about what he is doing. Not much happens before Dale turns back to head towards camp. I lower the binoculars and start paying attention to what is happening around camp. Laundry is being hung up to dry, and holes in shirts are being mended. I know that a lot of Daryl's shirts have holes in them from catching on thorns and branches in the woods. I look towards the quarry and I see the two sisters walking into camp with a bunch of fish. I'm not a big fan of eating fish, but it's food. I smile as I climb down off of the RV.

"Oh, baby. Will you look at that." Morales says as I step foot on the ground. "Hey, check it out." He says a little louder, and just about everyone in camp looks towards Andrea and Amy. Andrea hands one of the strings of fish over to Morales. "Ladies, because of you my children will eat tonight." Everyone has a smile on their faces and I see Lori clapping. Just about everyone looks impressed with the amount of fish that the two women gathered. "Thank You."

"Thank Dale." Andrea says. "It's his canoe and gear." I walk over to talk with Andrea and Amy when I hear Carl speak up.

"Mom, look. Look at all the fish." He says. Morales moves the line of fish closer to Lori and I try to stifle a laugh.

"Thank you." She says. Morales then brings the fish closer to Carl so he can get a better look at them.

"Woah." My little nephew says as he pokes some of the fish.

"Yeah, woah." Lori says. "Where did you two learn to do that?"

"Our dad." Amy answers.

"Can you teach me how to do that?" The little boy asks them.

"Sure." Says Amy. "I'll teach you all about nail knots and stuff." Then she looks over to Lori. "If that's okay."

"You won't catch me arguin'." Lori replies. I look over Amy's shoulder as Dale finally gets back to camp. My smile disappears as Andrea starts talking to him.

"Hey, Dale. When's the last time you oiled those line reels? They are a disgrace." Dale glances at me before starting to talk about the situation with Jim.

"I, uh, I don't want to alarm anyone, but we may have a bit of a problem." He says. I can tell that Shane, who had been sitting on the stairs going into the RV, stood up. He walks past me and stands next to Dale. The older man turns towards the hill and points to Jim, who is still digging.

"Alright, let's go see what's goin' on with him." Shane says as he starts to walk up the hill. Just about everyone follows him, including me. Even as all of us gather in front of him, Jim doesn't stop digging. "Hey, Jim?" Shane asks. The man continues to ignore us. "Jim, why don't chu hold up, alright? Just give me a second here, please?" Finally the man stops.

"What d'ya want?" He asks, like what he is doing is completely normal.

"We're all just a little concerned, man, that's all." Shane says.

"Dale says you've been out here for hours." Morales points out.

"So?" Jim says. Does he really think that we weren't going to be concerned about him randomly digging on this hill for hours?

"So why're ya diggin'?" I ask. He looks at me and starts wiping at his face.

"Are ya headin' to China, Jim?" Shane pipes in with a slight laugh.

"What does it matter? I'm not hurtin' anyone." Jim says as he goes back to digging.

"Yeah, except maybe yourself. It's a hundred degrees today." Dale says. "You can't keep this up."

"Sure I can." Jim says. "Watch me." Lori steps in front of Shane Dale and I.

"Jim, they're not gonna say it so I will." She says. "You're scarin' people. You're scarin' my son and Carol's daughter." Jim stops and looks over at Carl and Sophia.

"They got nothin' to be scared of." Jim says as he gestures towards the two kids. "I mean, what the hell people? I'm out here by myself. Why don't cha all just go and leave me the hell alone?" He goes back to digging as we all look on.

"We think that you need to take a break, okay?" Shane says. "Why don't cha go and get yourself in the shade? Some food maybe? I'll tell you what maybe in a little bit I'll come out here and help you myself. Jim, just tell me what it's about. Why don't chu just go ahead and give me that shovel."

"Or what?" Jim says as he stops again.

"There's no 'or what'." Shane answers. "I'm askin' you. I'm comin' to you and I'm askin' you, please. I don't wanna have to take it from ya."

"If I don't, then what?" Jim must really want to do this digging if he is fighting so hard to do it. "Then you're gonna beat my face in like Ed Peletier, aren't you?" Jim then addresses the rest of the group. "Y'all seen his face, huh? What's left of it." Then he goes back to talking to Shane. "See, now that's what happens when someone crosses you." He goes back to digging as I react.

"That was different, Jim." I say. "You weren't there. Ed was out of control. He was hurtin' his wife."

"That is their marriage." Jim explodes as he points to Shane. "That is not his. He is not judge and jury. Who voted you king boss, huh?"

"If it hadn't been Shane it would have been me, Jim." I say. He looks to me before Shane tries to make his way closer to Jim.

"Jim, I'm not here to argue with you, alright?" Shane says. "Just give me the shovel, okay?" He says as he reaches out for the shovel. Jim pulls the shovel away saying no. Then Jim tries to wack Shane with the metal end of the shovel. Shane tackles Jim to the ground.

"You got no right! You got no right!" Jim screams and Shane tries to get control of the man.

"Jim, just stop it. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Jim," The man was still fighting." Jim, nobody's gonna hurt ya. You hear me?" I go over and grab the shovel before starting to walk back over to the group. "Jim, nobody is gonna hurt you, okay?"

"That's a lie. That's the biggest lie there is." Jim says as Shane cuffs him. "I told that to my wife and my two boys. I said it a hundred times. It didn't matter. They came out of nowhere." I look to the ground. We have all lost people, and to relive it is no happy thing. "There were dozens of 'em. Just pulled 'em right out of my hands." I look over to Lori and her emotions are written all over her face. "You know, the only reason I got away was 'cause the dead were too busy eating my family." We all just stood there for a few minutes, in shock of the things that Jim just said.

I decide to head back to camp with the shovel propped on my shoulder. Soon everyone follows. When I get to camp I prop the shovel against the outside of the RV and head inside. I sit in the small dining booth, and I hold my head in my hands with my elbows propped up on the table in front of me. Finally I am joined in the RV and the person sits on the other side of the table. I don't look up until my sketch book is slid across the table to me.

"You left this outside, Vi." Lori says. "Shane almost got a hold of it." I look up at her and smirk a bit, but I stay quiet. "You okay?" I take a deep breath and look at her.

"Yeah, I'm just a bit dehydrated." It looks like she doesn't believe me. "I just have a headache." I say. She nodded, still not believing me.

"Well, Shane has Jim secured to a tree." I stay quiet. I don't really have anything to say. "I'll be outside with Carl if you need to talk to me." She says before standing up and walking outside. It was about fifteen minutes later that I decided to join everyone else. I got outside and I noticed Jim was tied to one of the bigger trees and everyone else was nowhere in sight. I walk over to Jim and sit down next to him as I lean back on the tree.

"Something similar happened to me." I say. "It's nowhere near as bad as what happened to you, but I had forgotten all about it before I heard what happened to your family." I pause as I feel tears well up in my eyes. I shut my eyes and take in a breath to calm down a little bit. "It was at the very beginning. Rick was stuck in the hospital and we all thought that he wouldn't wake up. I had secluded myself for a long time. One day Shane had us pack up everything into his car. As we were getting in the car to leave, my ex-boyfriend," I pull my knees up and hug them. "He was running down the street calling out to me. He had half a dozen walkers after him and they were getting close." I look over to Shane on the other side of the camp. "Shane made the decision to leave without him. I tried to run to him, but Shane stopped me and shoved me into the back of the car." I look back at Jim. "He made it to the car right before we drove off. I wanted to open the door to let him in, but Shane locked the door and drove away. I looked out the back window and saw what they were doing to him. He was being ripped apart by those things, and I could tell that he was still calling out to me." I pause again. "I sobbed for a good hour before I went silent. I was in shock."

"I'm sorry." He says. "You said he was your ex-boyfriend?"

"We had a rare mutual break up. we just weren't happy together. We were planning to stay friends after a period of being apart." I clarify.

"Maybe that's why you latched onto Daryl." My face scrunches up. "He's a survivor." He turns to me and I still don't understand what he means. He smiles and leans his head back onto the tree. "I believe that your natural biology saw that your previous mate was too weak, so it switched up to find a better one." I think about it for a second. It sounds right, but is it real? "That's just what I think." He says.

"I don't know. Maybe." I say. "I'm not sure of anything anymore. I know that this stuff has happened to just about everyone, but it doesn't make it easier." Jim stays quiet as I continue to think about everything. It is all just a jumble in my head.

"Hey, Vi?" I hear Andrea call to me. I look up and notice that she is waving me over to the RV. I look over to Jim.

"I am being beckoned." I smile at him as I stand up. "It was nice talking to you." Jim nodded and I turned to jog over to the RV. "Hey, what's up?" I ask as I get closer.

"I need to ask a favor." Andrea says as she enters the RV. I follow. As soon as we are both inside she turns to me. "Can you make me a little paper box or envelope or something?" My forehead creases.

"Sure, what for?"

"I have a present for Amy's birthday, and I wanted to present it to her in a nice way." She pulls a necklace out of her pocket to show me. "Presents should be wrapped." She says.

"I think I can make something for you." I smile as I walk over to my sketchbook. I rip out the last page and I make a small origami box. I present it to her and She has a big smile on her face.

"You are a life saver. Thank you so much." She says as she hugs me.

"It's just a box." I say, but she has already left the RV with the necklace in the hand made box.

"It's not just a box, Vi." Says a voice from deeper inside the RV. I look at Dale and smile. "You gave her a sense of normalcy. Even something as simple as that is going to be increasingly hard to come by."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." I say, waving off his comment.

"One of these days you're going to believe me." He says with a smile. "Now, let's go eat some fish. I know it's your favorite." I laugh at that sarcasm. He knows that I don't really like eating fish. We all gather around the fire as the sun sets and the dark of the night envelops the camp. Everyone seems to be having a good time. We all feel safe as we eat, but I can't help but think about my brother and certain hunter that are not here. I glance at the road they left on, and I hope they make it back soon.

A/N: Hey guys, I would love to know what you guys think about the story so far. I look forward to reading your comments.


	4. Vatos Part 2

**A/N: I am sorry I haven't really been posting. this retail season is brutal on me, but here is another chapter. I hope you enjoy.**

Daryl's POV

Glenn starts planning out the actions we should take to grab the guns, but I don't like it. I can tell that Vi's brother don't like it either. This whole plan is a bad idea.

"You're not doin' this alone." Rick says.

"Even I think it's a bad idea and I don't like you much." I pipe in.

"It's a good idea, okay," The Chinaman says in defense of his plan. "If you just hear me out." Rick crouches down to listen closely to what Glenn is about to say. "If we go out there in a group, we're slow, drawing attention." I still don't like this plan. "If I'm alone, I can move fast." We are all silent. "Look." We all look down at the floor where the Asian kid has drawn out the layout of the city. He pushes a binder clip to the place where the tank is supposed to be. "That's the tank, five blocks from where we are now." He picks up a small crumpled piece of paper and sets it next to the clip. "That's the bag of guns." He then points to an adjacent street and looks up at the lawman. "Here's the alley I dragged you into when we first met. That's where Daryl and I will go." He says glancing at me for a split second.

"Why me?" I ask.

"Your crossbow is quieter than his gun." he says gesturing to Rick with his head. I don't see anything wrong with his logic. He goes back to explaining his plan. He takes a small Post-it thing and places it in 'the alley'. "While Daryl waits here in the alley, I run up the street, grab the bag." He explains as he traces his route to and from the tank with his finger.

"You got us elsewhere?" Rick asks.

"You and T-Dog, right." Glenn places an eraser in another alley drawn on the floor. "You'll be in this alley here." It's kinda far away.

"Two blocks away? Why?" It seems like Vi's twin and I are on the same wavelength here.

"I may not be able to come back the same way. Walkers might cut me off. If that happens I won't be able to go back to Daryl." He gestures to the Post-its on the makeshift map. "I'll go forward instead, all the way around to that alley where you guys are." He points to the eraser. he looks around at the three of us. "Whichever direction I go, I got you in both places to cover me. Afterwards we'll all meet back here." How is he so good at this strategy stuff.

"Hey kid." I say to get his attention. "What'd you do before all this?"

"Delivered pizzas." he says simply. "Why?" I don't answer, and all of us are quiet for a bit. Soon we decide to put this plan into motion so we split up. As we're making our way to the alley Glenn decides to try and make conversation with me. "So, you and Vi, huh?"

"Excuse me?" He looks back at me with wide eyes.

"Nothin', I just thought that you two were a thing."

"Well, we ain't." I quickly say, knocking down his comment. Why am I so defensive?

"Sorry." He says genuinely. "You two just seem good together." I don't say anything. I just continue to walk across the roof of the building. "But what do I know? I have no clue what you guys were like before all of this." He was silent for less than a minute before speaking again. "If there was something going on with you two, I could imagine that it would be a bit awkward with Rick being around now." I refuse to feed into his comments as we reach the edge of the building. Glenn makes his way down the ladder first, and as I follow him down I think about what he said about me and Vi. Did everyone at camp think we were together? Once we hit the ground we head down the alley. At the end I load up my crossbow and get behind Glenn, ready for the dead to attack.

"You got some balls for a Chinaman." I say.

"I'm Korean." He throws back at me.

"Whatever." I answer. I watch as he leaves the safety of the alley and runs to the bag of guns. Not even a minute has passed when I hear something coming down the alley behind me. I jump out from my hiding spot and I aim at whatever is there.

"Whoa, don't shoot me! What d'ya want?" The boy in front of me says.

"I'm lookin' for my brother." I say, hoping he's seen Merle around here. "He's hurt real bad. You seen 'im?"

"Ayudame!" The kid screams.

"Shut up! You're gonna bring the geeks down on us." I say shoving my crossbow closer to the kid. "Answer me!" The kid stays quiet and I can tell that he is hiding something from me. "Answer me." I say again.

"Ayudame! Ayudame! Ayudame!" He won't shut up so I hit him across his face with the butt of my crossbow and he falls to the ground. He's still yelling, so I try to cover his mouth. I keep telling him to shut up, but he's not takin' the hint. Suddenly someone kicks me off of the kid and I go tumbling. Kicks and what I think is a bat start hitting me repeatedly as I hear Glenn come around the corner, into the alley. Suddenly they stop and start chasing Glenn. They knock him down and try to take the bag of guns from him. I sit up and aim at one of the guys attacking Glenn. I get him right in the ass. I smile a bit as he screams in pain. I stand up and reload before aiming at them again. Glenn starts screaming for me as a car drives up to the end of the alley. are they takin' 'im? Why? They throw Glenn in the car and leave the bag of guns.

"Come back here, you sumbitches!" I scream as I watch the car drive away with Glenn. I close the gate to keep the walkers from getting to me. I hear two sets of feet running towards me. I turn around to see Rick and T-Dog. Another thing I see brings my rage to the surface. The kid is still standing here. I grab his shirt and push him into the wall. I try to go after him again, but Rick gets in my way.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop it!" He says as he pushes me away from the kid.

"I'm gonna kick your nuts up in your throat!" I yell past Rick. T-Dog keeps the kid from running away.

"Let me go!" The kid yells.

"Chill out!" T-Dog yells back as he pins the kid to the wall.

"They took Glenn!" I yell over Rick's shoulder. "That little bastard and his little bastard homie friends. I'm gonna stomp your ass!" I am trying to get around Vi's brother the whole time. Rick looks over at the kid as T-Dog yells something.

"Guys! Guys! We're cut off!" He points to the end of the alley. Rick takes a look, then turns back to T-Dog.

"Get to the lab!" The lawman yells as he points back the way we came. T-Dog grabs the kid and leads him back to the lab.

"Damn, lets go." I say after he picks up the bag of guns. he picks up his hat and we run back to the lab as well. Now I really wish Vi was here. I feel like she would know what to do. Maybe her twin can get us out of this mess. We finally all make it back to the lab and all I can do is pace behind Rick as he tries to get information out of this kid.

"Those men you were with, we need to know where they went." Rick says.

"I ain't tellin' you nothin'." The kid looks so smug it makes me sick.

"Jesus man," T-Dog says. "What the hell happened back there?"

"I told you, this little turd and his douche bag friends came outta nowhere and jumped me." I say as I continue to pace.

"You're the one who jumped me, puto," Does this kid not realize the position he is in? I could just kill him right here and now, and I wouldn't feel bad about it. "Screamin' about tryin' ta find his brother like it's my damn fault."

"They took Glenn, coulda taken Merle too." I reason.

"Merle? What kinda hick name is that? I wouldn't name my dog Merle." That's it. I try to get to him, to hurt him, but the law held me back.

"Damn it, Daryl." He pushes me away from the kid. "Back off." Suddenly I get an idea. This kid doesn't think we're serious. He's way too comfortable. He thinks he's safe. It's time to change that. I head over to Glenn's bag and I take out Merle's severed hand.

"Wanna see what happened to the last guy that pissed me off?" I ask as I take the blue bandana off. I turn to the kid and I toss the hand into his lap. It takes a second for him to register what it is. Then, he freaks out and falls out of the chair and onto the floor. I head over and get in his face. "Start with the feet this time." I can see the fear finally appear in his eyes. Soon, I am pulled off and pushed away.

"The men you were with took our friend." Rick explains to the kid. "All we wanna do is talk to them, see if we can work somethin' out."

"Alright," The kid finally answers. "I'll take you to them." He is allowed to get up and he leads the way to where his group is. A brick wall stands in front of the building. Rick sends T-Dog off to get to higher ground with a sniper rifle, and the rest of the guns from the bag. I turn to the kid.

"One wrong move, you get and arrow in the ass. Just so you know." I say. He still looks a little bit too comfortable for my taste.

"G's gonna take that arrow outta my ass and shove it up yours. Just so _you_ know." This kid has some balls to talk back to me like that.

"G?" Vi's brother asks.

"Guillermo." The kid says with a smirk. "He's the man here."

"Okay then." Rick says. He look up at me as he cocks his pistol. "Let's go see Guillermo." We walk quietly up to the building. I'd like to say that we are ready for anything they throw at us, but I know that's not true. We reach the double doors and they open. A man walks out.

"You okay, little man?" He says to the kid.

"They're gonna cut off my feet, carnal."

"Cops do that?" He asks as he looks at Rick.

"Not him." The kid turns to me. "This redneck puto here." He turns back to the man in front of him. "He cut off some dude's hand, man. He showed it to me."

"Shut up." I say.

"Hey," A voice comes from the building. The guy I shot in the ass starts walking out with a gun pointed at me. "That's the vato right there, homes. he shot me in the ass with an arrow. What's up, homes, huh?" The man, who I assume is Guillermo, stops the guy from getting any closer.

"Chill, ese, chill. Chill." He looks back up at Rick. "This true? He wants Miguelito's feet? that's pretty sick, man."

"We were hoping more for a calm discussion." Rick tries to reason with him.

"That hillbilly jumps Felipe's little cousin, beats on 'im, threatens to cut off his feet, Felipe gets an arrow in the ass, and you want a calm discussion? You fascinate me."

"Heat of the moment. Mistakes were made on both sides." Rick and I still have our weapons poised to fire.

"Who's that dude to you anyway?" Guillermo says as he gestures to me with a not of his head. "You don't look related."

"He's one of our group, more or less. I'm sure you have a few like 'im." Rick answers.

"You got my brother in there?" I pipe up.

"Sorry, fresh outta white boys." Guillermo quips back. "But I've got Asian. You interested?"

"I have one of yours, you have one of mine." Rick starts. "Sounds like an even trade."

"Don't sound even to me." What does this guy want?

"G. C'mon man." The kid says.

"My people got attacked. Where's the compensation for their pain and suffering? More to the point, where's my bag of guns?" If he wanted the guns why did his homies grab Glenn and not the bag.

"Guns?" Rick plays dumb.

"The bag Miguel saw in the street. the bag Felipe and Jorge were going back to get. That bag of guns." It's not yours. It's ours.

"You're mistaken." Rick says plainly.

"I don't think so."

"About it being yours. It's my bag of guns."

"The bag was in the street." Guillermo states. "Anybody could come around and say it's theirs. I'm supposed to take your word? What's to stop my people from unloading on you right here and now, and I take what's mine?"

"You could do that." Rick turns to where T-Dog is stationed on a roof with his sights on the people in front of us. "Or not."

"Oye!" He yells. I look up to the roof of the building in front of us and see that there are a couple people bringing a person to the edge of the building with a bag over their head. One of the guys takes the bag off of the person to reveal that it is Gelnn.

"I see two options." Guillermo says. "You come back with Miguel and my bag of guns, everybody walks. Or you come back locked and loaded, we'll see which side spills more blood." We look around the group and slowly back away, dragging the kid with us. We meet back up with T-Dog and head back to the lab. We need to figure out what we're gonna do.

"Them guns are worth more than gold." I say as I pace the room. Rick is going through the guns, checking the ammo. "Gold won't protect your family or put food on the table." He keeps looking through the guns. "You gonna give that up for that kid?" I know that Vi would want to get Glenn back, but guns are everything in this world now.

"If I knew we'd get Glenn back I might agree." T-Dog pipes up. "But, you think that vato across the way is just gonna hand 'im over?"

"You callin' G a liar." The kid says from his seat on the floor. I hate this kid so much right now, and I can't hold back my anger.

"Are you a part of this? You wanna hold onta yer teeth?" I shout as I smack 'im around a bit. I step away from the kid and T-Dog starts talkin' again.

"Question is, do you trust that man's word?"

"No, question is what are you willin' to bet on it?" I point out. "Could be more than them guns. Could be your life. Glenn worth that to you?"

"What life I have I owe to him." Rick finally says. "I was nobody to Glenn, just some idiot stuck in a tank. He could've walked away, but he didn't. Neither will I."

"Plus, Vi would be pretty pissed that you suggested that we leave one of her best friends." T-Dog brought up. "Almost every day they are in the same place I hear them jokin' around." I think back to times when no one was out huntin' or goin' into the city for supplies. I remember hearing Vi laugh. It's the most infectious sound I have heard in my life. It made me smile every time I heard it.

"Shut up." I bite back. I look over to Rick. "So, you're gonna hand the guns over?"

"I didn't say that." He says. Both T-Dog and I just look at 'im. What is he plannin'? He looks between both of us before clarifying. "There's nothin' keeping you two here. You should get out, head back to camp." He goes back to packing up the guns.

"And tell your family what?" T-Dog asks as he rubs his head in frustration. Rick looks to T-Dog, then towards me.

"They weren't big fans about us comin' back here." I say. "You really think they'd except you tellin' us to leave without you?" He thinks about it for a minute before nodding to me. I help him grab the guns, and T-Dog comes over to help too.

"C'mon, this is nuts." The kid says as he gets up off the ground. I go over and make sure he sits back down. "Just do like G says." We continue to load the guns and get ready for a battle. I hope this goes well. I want to see Vi again. I don't really know why, though. Once we're ready, we gag and bind the kid and lead him back to the building where those people are holding Glenn. I have a gun pressed to the back of the kid to lead him in the right direction. Rick and T-Dog are walking behind us. We get to the doors and they are opened. I shove the kid inside and I slowly enter after 'im. once we walk all the way in we are surrounded by their group. Guillermo steps in front of us.

"I see my guns, but they're not all in the bag." He says to us.

"That's because they're not yours." Rick says as he aims his gun. "I thought I mentioned that." The dude I shot in the ass steps up to his leader.

"Let's just shoot these fools right now, ese. Alright? Unload on their asses, ese." Guillermo just looks at us before speaking.

"I don't think you fully understand the gravity of the situation."

"No, I'm pretty clear." Rick says as he lowers his gun. He takes out a knife and cuts the kid loose. "You have your man." He pushes the kid forward. "I want mine." He puts the knife away as Guillermo steps forward.

"I'm gonna chop up your boy." He says. "I'm gonna feed 'im to my dogs. They're the evilest, nastiest, man-eating, bitches you ever saw. I picked them up from Satan at a yard sale." Rick is unmoving. "I told you how it has to be. Are you woefully deaf?"

"No, my hearing's fine." Rick says. "You said come locked and loaded." All three of us cock our guns, and everyone surrounding us does the same. "Okay then, we're here." There is a long moment of tension before it is broken by the voice of an old woman.

"Felipe! Felipe!" She walks through the crowd of people.

"Abuela, go back with the others now." Says the man she calls out for.

"Get that old lady outta the line of fire." I say. Guillermo turns his head to talk to her.

"Abuela, listen to your mijo, okay? This is not the place for you right now." The old lady ignores him and continues to speak.

"Mr. Gilbert is having trouble breathing." The woman says in a shaky voice. "He needs his asthma stuff. Carlitos didn't find it. He needs his medicine." Guillermo looks to rick for a moment before turning back to the woman and one of his men.

"Felipe, go take care of it, okay? And take your grandmother with you." He says is a harsh tone.

"Abuela!" Felipe calls. "Ven conmigo por favor." He says as he tries to lead her away from the room. She spots us and pushes past the men.

"Who are those men?" She asks.

"Por favor, ven conmigo." Felipe tries to get the woman to leave again, but she continues to walk towards us. She walks up to Rick before speaking.

"Don't you take him." She says, angrily.

"Ma'am?" Rick tries to speak, but she speaks over him.

"Felipe's a good boy. He have his trouble, but he pull himself together." Her expression softened. "We need him here." Rick looks around before speaking his piece.

"Ma'am, I'm not here to arrest your grandson."

"Then what do you want him for?" She asks.

"He's helping us find a missing person." He lies. "Fella named Glenn."

"The Asian boy?" What exactly is going on here? "He's with Mr. Gilbert." She reaches out and grabs Ricks hand before dragging him deeper into the room. "Come, come I show you. He needs his medicine." T-Dog and I start to follow, but our path is blocked.

"Let 'em pass." Guillermo says. They part to make a path. We follow them outside and then into another building. It's an old folks home. How have they survived in this place? Felipe walks up to the old woman.

"Abuela, por favor. Take me to him." The woman takes Felipe's hand and leads him deeper into the building. We follow as we enter a larger room. It is an event hall with a stage on the far wall. Round tables are set up all around. A crowd is gathered in the center of the room. Felipe has joined them. "Alright." He says in a soothing tone. "Alright." Some of the men step away from the crowd and we are finally able to see who is at the center. It's an old man who is having an asthma attack as he sits in his wheelchair. "Nice and easy. Just breathe. Just breathe. Just let it out." Felipe holds an inhaler to the man. "Just breathe. Just relax." We look around at the other people here as the man begins to calm down.

"What the hell is this?" Rick says to Glenn who is just standing nearby.

"An asthma attack." He answers simply. "Couldn't get his breathe all of a sudden." That's not what Rick was talking about, and I think we all know that an asthma attack is.

"I thought you were being eaten by dogs, man." T-Dog says. Glenn looks over his shoulder, and I follow his gaze to the small dog bed with three even smaller dogs in it. One of them barks at us.

"Could I have a word with you?" Rick says to Guillermo. They walk away from the older people, but I can't really hear everything they say. Once they're done with their conversation Guillermo leads us into an empty office room. "What about the rest of your crew?"

"The vatos trickle in to check on their parents, their grandparents. They see how things are and most decide to stay." Guillermo answers. "It's a good thing too. We need the muscle. The people we've encountered since things fell apart, the worst kind, plunderers, the kind that take by force."

"That's not who we are." Rick says.

"How was I to know? My people got attacked, and you show up with Miguel hostage?" They attacked me first, but whatever.

"Guess the world changed." T-Dog says from his seat.

"No." Guillermo says. "It's the same as it ever was. The weak get taken." He's right. This world is survival of the fittest, and these old people are a prime target. "So we do what we can here. The vatos work on those cars, talk about getting the old people out of the city. But, most can't even get to the bathroom by themselves, so that's just a dream. Still, it keeps the crew busy, and that's worth something. So, we barred all the windows, welded all the doors shut except for one entrance. The vatos, they go out, scavenge what they can to keep us going. We watch the perimeter night and day, and we wait. The people here, they all look to me now. I don't even know why."

"Because they can." Rick says. He hands Guillermo the gun in his hands. Then, he goes through the bag of guns. He leaves half of the guns and ammo with them, and we take the rest. "Seems like a fair deal. We have our own to protect, back at camp." Guillermo nods and thank us. with that we leave with half of our guns and still no Merle, but everyone we came with is still alive. We get back to the place we parked the van pretty quickly.

"Admit it," Gelnn says. "you only came back to Atlanta for the hat."

"Don't tell anybody." Rick jokes back.

"You've given away half our guns and ammo." I pipe up, bringing them back to reality.

"Not nearly half." Rick corrects.

"For what? Bunch of old farts who're gonna die off momentarily anyhow? Seriously, how long you think they got?" I'm just trying to state the obvious. One day we're gonna need those guns and ammo, and it could be sooner rather than later in this new world.

"How long do any of us?" He answers me. We turn the corner to where the van should be, but it's gone. Someone stole our ride.

"Oh my God." Glenn says.

"Where the hell's our van?" I say.

"We left it right there. Who would take it?"

"Merle." Rick says. That's not good, I know my brother and I would bet anything that he's gotta be pissed. I turn to the rest of them.

"He's gonna be takin' some vengeance back to camp." I say. I think about the only friend I have there. Vi could try to calm him down and buy us time to get there, but I don't know how long that could stop him. I look at Rick, and I can tell that he is thinking about what could happen if Merle heads back to camp. Once we get on the other side of the fence we all start running back.

Violet's POV

"Pass the fish, please." Carl says to me. I grab the plate of fish and hold it out the him. I hold my nose closed as I do so. He laughs at me, which causes me to laugh. He grabs one off the plate and I pass it back around to the other people sitting around the fire.

"Man oh man, that's good." Shane says. "I miss this." Everyone else is eating, so they aren't really starting a conversation. I look into the fire. I have already eaten enough to fill me for now. I watch as the flames dance around.

"I've gotta ask you, man. It's been driving me crazy." Morales says, snapping me back to reality.

"What?" Dale asks from across the fire pit.

"That watch." Morales says, pointing to the man. I look to the item attached to the man's wrist. Dale looks at his watch then back at Morales.

"What's wrong with my watch?" He says with a smile. I could tell he was genuinely interested in what the point of Morales' comment.

"I see you every day, the same time, winding that thing like a village priest saying mass." Morales explains. People around the group were nodding their heads, and I was one of them.

"I've wondered this myself." Jacqui said. We were all thinking the same thing.

"I'm missing the point." Dale says with a smile still on his face.

"Unless I've misread the signs, the world has come to an end." Jacqui explains. "At least hit a speed bump for a good long while."

"But there's you," Morales jumps back in. "every day winding that stupid watch."

"It's not stupid." I say with a bit of laughter in my voice to make sure that people knew I wasn't serious.

"Time," Dale says, starting to answer. ", It's important to keep track, isn't it? The days at least." No one was really saying anything. Did they think he was just crazy for trying to keep something from the time before everything? He turned to look to Andrea. "Don't you think, Andrea? Back me up here." She just sat there and made her eyes go wide before taking a sip of her drink. Dale continued to smile as he continued. "I like, I like what, um, what a father said to son when he gave him a watch that had been handed down through generations. He said, 'I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire, which will fit your individual needs no better than it did mine or my father's before me. I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you may forget it for a moment, now and then, and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it." There was a moment of silence for everyone to let the story sink in, and Amy breaks it.

"You are so weird." We all chuckle at her comment.

"It's not me." Dale says. "It's Faulkner. William Faulkner. Maybe my bad paraphrasing." Everyone went back to eating, drinking, and staying warm around the fire. Amy stands up and turns towards the RV, but Andrea stops her.

"Where are you going?"

"I have to pee." Amy says in a loud whisper. "Jeez, you try to be discreet around here." We all giggle as she walks towards the RV. A couple minutes later Amy comes out. "We're out of toilet paper?" Then she lets out a blood curdling scream. We all look over to see a walker biting onto her arm.

Most of the people gathered around the fire scatter to pick up some weapons to fight the many dead that have walked right into camp. All of the children latch onto their mothers. I grab the closest weapon, a hunting knife that I keep in my boot. I look up and Shane starts shooting them. I stand in front of Lori, Carl, Carol, and Sophia. As the geeks get close I put them down easily. Everyone is frantic, though. People are getting bit, and there is a lot of screaming. Shane gestures for us to follow him. I am not sure where he is leading us, but I go along with it.

"Come on!" he yells. "Come on, stay close!" They make a train, Shane at the front. Someone calls out to head to the RV. It makes sense. We would be able to be in a closed in space, and lock out these things. We try to make our way to the vehicle, but there are so many of them. Suddenly, the crew that went to Atlanta came back, yelling and guns blazing. I watch as the walkers fall, one by one.

The last one falls and Carl runs, crying, to his dad. My knees start to wobble and I sink to the ground. I look at my hands. They are covered in walker blood. I feel numb right now. This can't really have happened. I am so lost in my thoughts that I don't realize that someone is standing in front of me. The figure kneels down, and they put their hand over my own. I flinch a bit, thinking it might be another walker. A closer inspection of the hand reveals Dale's watch. I slowly look up at him and I feel something running down my face. He quickly pulls me into a hug, and I let out a sob or two. I look over Dale's shoulder to see that Daryl is standing in the middle of camp. He is still on guard. I lean away from Dale and look to my left. There is a heartbreaking scene. Andrea is crouched over Amy's lifeless body. I let out another sob as Dale tries to comfort me.

"I remember my dream now." Jim says, standing next to us. "Why I dug the holes."

 **A/N: So, the Winter season has come and the Holidays are upon us in a couple weeks. I figured I would release this in hopes to get myself back on track. In the retail world this season is the worst. I hope I end up getting through it so I can bring you lovely people more chapters to my stories. Please let me know what you think about this story so far. I would love reading them.**


	5. Wildfire

Violet's POV

What is this feeling? Numbness. Helplessness. Hopelessness. I don't know what we are supposed to do now. Many people from camp perished in last night's attack. I had broken down after the dust settled, and I stayed kneeling on the ground for about half an hour. Dale left my side to help the rest of 'em clear the dead. I was in shock. I still am, and nothing can snap me out of it except me. I finally stood up from the ground and walked to my tent. People tried to talk to me. I just ignored them and kept to myself in the tent.

As the sun starts rising higher into the sky I start to hear the sickening sound of the skulls of the dead being punctured with sharp objects. I flinch every time I hear the sound. The sun continues to get higher in the sky and a foul smell starts to make it's way into my tent. I hear the crackling of a fire. They are burning the bodies now. Most likely the bodies of those who weren't part of our camp. Soon, I hear someone outside.

"Vi?" My brother's voice breaks the silence in my head. I don't answer. "Vi, I'm comin' in." he warns. He unzips the door flaps and I watch as he comes in and zips the flaps closed. He sits next to me and tries to gather his thoughts. I see the gears turning in his head. he looks to me as he starts to speak. "I can't begin to believe what you are feeling. I didn't know these people that well, but-"

"I'm not acting like this because some of my new friends died." I interrupt him. "It's because I feel like I can't do anything to protect the people around me. What happens if I can't even protect my own nephew?" My twin just stares at me.

"You are not alone in this. You have me, and Lori, and everyone else in this group." I sit up at his words, but i don't make eye contact. "We have to work together if we are going to survive. And you are a part of that." I finally look up at him and realize that he is right. He's always right. I sigh and look back down at my hands. "Now, could you help us with Andrea?"

"Oh, I see how it is." I say with a smile. "You just want to get me out of this tent to deal with something that you can't deal with yourself." I look up at him and chuckle a bit.

"I guess that was a big part of it." He admits.

"Alright, I'll see what I can do." I slowly start to get up off the ground as Rick begins to leave the tent. I follow him and see that Andrea is still hunched over Amy's body. My smile is gone. Out of the corner of my eye I see Daryl and Morales dragging a body towards the fire.

"Hey. What're you guys dong?" Glenn asks them. He is ignored. "This is for geeks." He insists as he gestures towards the fire. Again he is ignored. I start to walk towards him. "Our people go over there." He points to the bodies laying off to the side.

"What's the difference?" Daryl says. "They're all infected."

"So?" I ask as I finally make it to them. "They're our people D." He just looks at me. "What if it were Merle?" I pause for him to think about it. "Bring him over there, and we'll bury him." I say in a stern tone. He doesn't move. He's just staring at me. "Now!" I yell at him. He looks like he wants to say something, but he moves the body into the line of bodies we still have to bury. I watch him closely as he does so.

"You reap what you sow." He calls to Glenn and I.

"You know what?" Morales says to him. "Shut up man." Daryl drops the body, which sends Morales off balance.

"Y'all left my brother for dead!" He yells as he starts walking back towards Glenn and I. "You had this commin'!" I can't take anymore of his shit. I step up behind him, and when he turns around to continue walking I slap him right in the face.

"How dare you!" I scream at him. "People have lost friends and loved ones today. You have no right to blame this on what happened to Merle." He just looks at me in shock. "Your brother is a piece of shit!" I don't know what's gotten into me, but I can't stop myself. "All he ever did was verbally assault everyone for everything." His brow knit together and angled down towards the middle. "Even you, his own brother, weren't safe from his abuse." His expression softened a bit. "So don't you say that getting rid of that asshole caused this to happen. That is bullshit and you know it." I push him away from me and I head back to where Glenn is. Everyone is quiet until Glenn pulls me into a hug.

"Wow." He says in my ear. "That was amazing. You really let loose on him." He let go of me and I stepped back.

"I was just tired of his bullshit." I look around at the bodies we still have to sort through. "Without Merle here, he needs someone to answer to." I look back to Glenn. "If that someone is me, then so be it." We are able to throw one body into the fire before another commotion starts up.

"A walker bit Jim." Jacqui says. Everyone starts to panic. Jim grabs a shovel as everyone starts closing in on him, but I stay where I am. Eventually he drops the shovel and Shane lifts up Jim's shirt to see the bite. He keeps saying that he is okay, but we all know what is going to happen next with him. I let out a huge sigh as my gaze meets the ground. We've already lost a lot of people, and now we are going to lose someone else. I look up and notice that everyone is just staring at the poor man.

"Jim." I call to him. He looks at me and I wave him over. I find him a crate to sit on, and I set it up in the shade of the back of the RV. "Just relax for right now." I tell him as I gesture to the crate. He takes a seat. I figure he is fine for now, so I decide to check on Andrea. I walk over and sit by her. I don't say anything. If she wants to talk to me, she will. Andrea is stubborn and strong willed. She's not going to let anyone make her do something she doesn't want to do.

"I don't know what to do." I finally hear Andrea say. She is still looking down at Amy's body, and I think if she was able to produce tears she would be crying. "I know that she's gone, but I don't want to accept that. It's too cruel." I stay quiet. "I know what I have to do, but I don't want to. I don't want anyone to. I just want my sister back." I stay silent. Nothing I say would be good enough. I look at the group and I notice that Daryl is looking over at Jim. I stand up and make my way over to Jim. I stand in front of the man with my arms crossed in front of me, and I wait.

"You go lookin' for asprin, do what you need to do." Daryl says as he starts to walk backwards. "Someone needs to have some balls to take care-" He turns around, with the pick axe raised up. I don't even flinch as he comes at me. He stops, but I can tell he is fuming.

"What do you think you're doing, D?" I ask, tilting my head to the side.

"Get out of the way, Vi." he says.

"Why would I?"

"Get out of my way or else!" He yells in my face.

"Or else what?" I say with a laugh. "Would you really try to hurt me to get to Jim? I don't think that's very smart." He still looks like he's seething. "You see, Shane and Rick would be able to take you out before you were able to do anything to me." I look over at my brother, who already has his revolver partially drawn. "So, back off. We don't kill the living." I hold my hand out. He just looks at it. "Hand it over." I say. It takes a minute, but he hands me the pick axe and storms off. Rick comes up to me and wraps me up in a hug.

"Don't do that again." He says as he kisses the top of my forehead.

"No promises." I say. He chuckles as he moves over to Jim. He needs to be away from people that want to hurt him. I look around to see Dale walking over to talk to Andrea. I go back to my tent, to get my sketchbook. I come out and sit in the middle of camp. I open to the page where I drew Andrea and Amy together. I start to work on it. This is the last time I will see Amy. I need to get her just right. I turn the page to the vignette of Amy, and I start perfecting that image as well.

At one point I look up and notice that the dead girl was now moving her arm. I close my sketchbook as the walker version of Amy grips onto the hair on the back of Andrea's head. The body of Amy sits up and I become concerned. Why hasn't Andrea ended it yet? I stand up and start to slowly walk towards them. Suddenly, Andrea pulls out her gun and shoots the walker in the head. I stop my movements and breathe a sigh of relief. I go back to my sketchbook and perfect a few more sketches.

About an hour later, Shane and Rick have gone up on the hill to bury the members of our camp that perished. I see Daryl drive up with the last of the bodies. I close my sketchbook again and start to head up the hill. We all need to say goodbye to those we've lost. Lori and the rest of them follow me up. I get to the top of the hill and see the truck that Daryl had been driving. As we get closer I hear the three men talking.

"Vi and the Chinaman get all emotional, say it's not the thing to do, we just follow them along?" No one answers his rhetorical question. "These people need to know who the hell's in charge here. What the rules are."

"There are no rules." Rick answers. I walk up to the three of them.

"Well, that's a problem." I pipe up. They turn to me and I feel Lori step up next to me.

"We haven't had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves." Lori says.

"We need time to mourn and we need time to bury our dead." I look at Daryl. "It's what people do." I watch as the rest of the bodies are placed into graves. Amy's body is the last. Andrea places the body of her sister in the hole and I start to get a little teary eyed. Dale helps Andrea out of the hole and the body is covered up using the dirt piled next to the hole. Once everything has been done we silently pay our respects. As we are walking back I feel the presence of the hunter next to me.

"Hey." He says to try and get my attention. I don't acknowledge him. "Hey." He says a bit louder. "Hey!" He yells as he grabs my arm. I spin around quickly and smack his hand away.

"I have a name!" I yell back at him. "And I don't know who the heck you think you are, but I don't just allow people to grab me like that." I glare at him and wait for him to speak, but he just stands there looking at me. "What do you want?" I prompt him. "I don't have all day." I cross my arms in front of my chest.

"I wanted to ask you what your problem is." He says trying to get up in my face.

"What?" I laugh out. "You wanna know what _**my**_ problem is?"

"Yeah. Ever since your brother got here, you've been different." I'm not dumb. I know that my moods and attitude have changed a lot since Rick came to camp.

"Can you blame me?" He just looks at me. "Before Rick came to camp I needed someone to connect to. I felt like a piece of me was missing. With him here, I feel like I did before the walkers existed. Before I pulled away from my family."

"So, this is the real you, now?" He asks. "Who have I been going out on hunts with, then?"

"What do you want from me?" What is he trying to say? "It was still me, but only a part of who I am. What you see now, in front of you," I gesture to myself. "Is who I am as a whole." He just glared at me. "If you don't like who I am as a complete person, that's fine. We don't have to go on hunts together. We don't have to pretend like we're friends." Slowly, as I speak, I am inching closer and closer to him. I start to jab my pointer finger into his chest. "But, if I see you badmouthing me, my friends, or my family, you bet I will get in your face to say something about it. Is that clear?" He steps away from me and nods his head. "I need to hear the words, redneck."

"Yeah, it's clear." I turn and walk away from him. "What a bitch." I hear him say to himself. I walk to the closest place to sit by the fire. Carol is sitting next to me on my right and Jacqui is on my left.

"You alright after your first fight?" Jacqui asks.

"What?"

"That wasn't a fight." Carol pipes in. "She was just laying out the rules." They both laugh at that comment.

"I don't know what you two are talking about." I take a deep breath and bury my head in my hands. "I just lost a friend because of an outburst."

"I don't know about that, honey." Jacqui says looking across camp. I lift my head up and follow her gaze to see the hunter. "He has not taken his eyes off of you since you walked away from him."

"I called him a redneck. I smacked him earlier. If I wanted a romantic relationship with him, which I don't, that is no way to start it." I say as I hide in my hands again.

"If the worst of it was you calling him a name, him calling you a name, and you poking him hard in the chest, you have it easy with him." Carol said. "And you walked away from each other." She gets really close to me and whispers. "Maybe later, after both of you ave cooled off a bit, you can talk to him about what's really bothering him and you." After she pulls away and stands up I think about the events of earlier in the day. Jacqui soon walks away with Carol, and I am alone to weed through my thoughts.

"Whatcha thinking about?" The voice of my nephew says from where Jacqui had been standing.

"Nothin' you need to concern yourself with, Squirt." I say as I pull him into my side. "Where's Sophia?"

"In her tent." I look up at him. "She doesn't want to hang out right now."

"I see, so you've finally decide to come back to auntie for entertainment?" I say dramatically as he nods to me, giggling. "Alright, what do you wanna do?"

"Can I look through your sketchbook?" I pause for a moment. "I hear you're really good, and I saw Daryl looking through it before he left for the city with dad." I let out the breath I was holding in.

"Listen, I am a fair person." He looks at me confused. "Daryl has seen only one of my sketches, so I will allow you to pick one page, at random, to look at." He now has a smile, as bright as the sun, spread across his face. "Deal?"

"Deal!" He yells as I get up and head to my tent. Before I get there I see Rick heading into the forest with Shane. For some reason that makes me nervous. I look around to see Dale watching the same thing I was. We make eye contact, he nods his head to me, and follows the two of them into the woods. I get back to my nephew, with my sketchbook in hand, a couple minutes later. I hold it out to him.

"Remember, only one page." He looks so excited as I hand him the sketchbook. He chooses one page at random and fully opens it. His eyes go wide.

"Wow." I look over his shoulder at the page he turned to. It is the vignette of Daryl. My cheeks feel like they are getting a little warm. "This is really good." He looks over at me. "Are you blushing Auntie?"

"What?" I say as I lean away a bit from him. "No. Why would I be blushing?" My nephew leans in close to me and whispers.

"It's okay. I know you like Daryl."

"And how would you know that?" I want to know what he has seen that would cause him to think that.

"The way you look at him is different from the way you look at everyone else. You go out on those hunts with him all the time. And you fight like a married couple." He answers.

"How do you know what a married couple fights like?"

"I don't know, but mom says it about you and Daryl all the time." I look across the camp at Lori, talking to Jacqui and Carol. "I would be okay with him being my uncle." I playfully push him and he laughs.

"You're a good kid. You know that?" I ask him.

"Yup. Mom tells me all the time." I laugh as I ruffle his hair and stand up. I hold my hand out and Carl places my sketchbook in it.

"Go grab a seat by the other fire pit, kid." I say as I nudge him over toward his mother. He runs over and grabs a seat. I grab the chair I was sitting in and I bring it over to where everyone was. We all sit in silence, waiting for Rick and Shane come back and tell us what we are planning to do next. About an hour later, they finally make an appearance. Shane is the first one to speak.

"I've uh, I've been thinkin' about Rick's plan." He says as Rick crouches between Lori and I. "Now look, there are no, uh, there are no guarantees either way. I'll be the first to admit that. I've known this man a long time. I trust his instincts. I say the most important thing here is, we need to stay together." There is a long pause. No one wants to say anything right now. "So, those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning." Wow. That's quick. I glance over at Rick before Shane continues. "Okay?"

I look across the stone fire pit to where Daryl is sitting, and I see that he is looking back at me. I look away quickly. The night goes by quickly. We eat a little bit of food before heading to bed. Rick takes the first watch of the night. No one wakes me up for a shift, so I sleep through the night. The next morning, I am awoken by my nephew poking my face.

"Watch it, Squirt. I'm not the happiest morning person." I say as I sit up.

"Dad wants me to help you pack your things. Everyone else is almost done already.

"What?" How long did they let me sleep? I look around at my tent and then back at Carl. "Alright, kid. Start with the stuff over there." I tell him as I point to the other side of the tent. I pull some boots on before helping him with my things. Once everything inside the tent is packed up, both of us exit and we start to take it apart.

"G'mornin' sunshine." Shane says as he walks up to us. I try to ignore him, but he keeps talking tome. "You're gonna ride with the redneck." I continue to ignore him as the tent's frame is finally taken down and packed up. "I'll grab your things and pack 'em up with the rest of our stuff." I watch as he picks up my bags and walks away. I finish packing up the tent and bring it over to the vehicle with everyone's things packed in it. By the time I turn around everyone is gathered around. Shane begins to speak. "Alright everybody, listen up. Those of you with C.B.s we're gonna be on channel fourty. Let's keep the chatter down, okay? Now, you got a problem? Don't have C.B.? Can't get a signal? Or anything at all, you're gonna hit your horn one time. That'll stop the caravan. Any questions?" I look around at everyone.

"We're, uh," Sounds Morales. "We're not going." He says. We all just look at him in silence.

"We have family in Birmingham." His wife explains. "We wanna be with our people."

"You go on your own, you won't have anyone to watch your back." Shane points out.

"We'll take the chance." Morales replies. "I gotta do what's best for my family.

"You sure?" Rick asks them. I know Morales. He's not going to change his mind. When he makes a decision he sticks to it, especially when it comes to his family.

"We talked about it. We're sure." He answers.

"Alright." Rick then looks to Shane and they decide what to give the small family of four to defend themselves. I look across the way at Daryl who perks up when he hears them talking about our weapons and ammunition. They present the 357 handgun to Morales with a box of ammo. Morales takes the gun and the box.

"The box is half full." Shane states. Daryl scoffs at loosing something as good as gold in this apocalyptic world. I step forward to say goodbye to the family. They thank us as we hug them and wish them luck on their journey. I end up standing next to my twin as I watch Morales and his family leave. "What makes you think our odds are any better?" Shane says. "C'mon, let's go." We all start to move towards our vehicles. "Let's move out." I follow Daryl to his truck with Merle's motorcycle docked in the bed of it. I get in the passenger seat as Daryl jumps in the driver's seat. He looks over at me without saying anything as he starts up the engine. We're second to last in line with T-Dog and Andrea in the car behind us. We drive in silence for a long time. I look out the window at the scenery rushing by.

"So," I say to break the silence between Daryl and I. "We should talk about yesterday." I turn to face him.

"Why?" He asks. "You made yourself very clear that we aren't friends."

"I made a mistake in my words and actions yesterday." He glances over at me before going back to paying attention to the road and other vehicles in front of us. "It was an emotional day, for everyone. I did something I swore I would never do. In my grief I decided to push someone, important to me, away."

"And who is that person?" He asks.

"Well, let's see if you can guess." I say before listing off everything I did to him yesterday. "I slapped him in the face, I called him a redneck, I poked him in the chest pretty hard, and told him that I didn't want to be friends with him." I look down at my hands. Sure that was a short list of bad things, but that was all in one day. That is no way for any type of relationship to continue.

"I'm important to you?"

"Of course you are, D." I answer as I feel the sting of tears make their way to my eyes. "You helped me through a rough time in my life. You helped me grieve my brother's death, however temporary it was. You helped me feel as whole as I could be with the other half of my existence. You made me feel normal. And, I just threw all that away in one day."

"You didn't throw it away." he says quietly. "Do you think that was all bad enough for me to just stop our friendship? You were right. My brother has done way worse, and I would follow him anywhere. But, he is also my brother. I felt like I had to listen to him, though. He was family." He paused for a moment. "The truth is, when I was in Atlanta with your brother I thought about you. I thought about how you would do the same things your brother was doing. I blew up a couple times on that trip, almost killing T-Dog one of those times, and your brother talked me down. All I could think about was how you would have calmed me down. I wondered if that talent ran in the family." I sort of smiled at that.

"Really?"

"Yeah. With my brother gone, I felt like I couldn't control myself. But when you talk to me I feel like I'm calm, like I can see things clearer. Your brother was similar, but wasn't as effective as you would've been." I smile and look ahead at the vehicles in front of us.

"So, we're good?" I ask.

"Yeah." He chuckles. "We're good." Slowly the convoy comes to a stop. Daryl follows suit and puts the truck in park. Quickly I get out to stretch my legs. Once Daryl gets out and grabs his crossbow we walk up to the RV. Almost immediately I see that it is smoking.

"I told you we'd never get far on that hose. I needed the one from the cube van." Dale says to my brother.

"Can you jury-rig it?" Rick asks.

"That's all it is." I say to him. "It's more duct tape and hose."

"And I'm out of duct tape." Dale says.

"I see somthin' up ahead." Shane informs us. "A gas station if we're lucky." I heave a huge sigh. Suddenly Jacqui runs out of the RV.

"Ya'll, Jim. It's bad." She says. "I don't think he can take anymore.

"Hey, Rick, You wanna hold down the fort?" Shane asks. "I'll drive ahead, see what I can bring back." Then he looks to me. "I'll bring Vi with me for backup." I scrunch up my face at him.

"I'm not going anywhere with you." I bite back at him.

"I'll go." T-Dog offers.

"Fine." Shane agrees. "Ya'll keep your eyes open. We'll be right back." The two of them get in a car and head off down the road.

"What was that all about?" Daryl asks from behind me.

"We had a weird relationship before everything happened." I say. "Let's just say, I think he's a sleazeball." Rick makes his way into the RV to talk to Jim. Daryl nods in slight understanding, and we just stand in silence. A few minutes later Rick re-emerges from the RV. He waits for Shane to get back, and the RV to be fixed, before talking to everyone about what happened in the RV with Jim.

"He says he wants us to leave him here. He wants to be with his family." I sigh and look to the ground. "That's what he says he wants." Rick finishes.

"And he's lucid?" Carol asks.

"He seems to be. I would say, yes." My brother replies. Dale is the next to speak.

"Back in the camp, when I said Daryl might be right and you shut me down, you misunderstood." I glance at Daryl, standing next to me, as Dale continues. "I would never go along with callously killing a man. I was just gonna suggest that we ask Jim what he wants. And I think we have an answer." I look back to the ground and nod.

"We just leave 'im here?" Shane asks in an almost whisper. "We take off? Man, I'm not sure I could live with that."

"It's not your call," Lori says. "Either one of you." There is more silence until I break it.

"Let's get the poor man out of the RV." I say. Rick and Shane look at me in shock. "I might have protected him from a pick axe to the head," I quickly glace at Daryl. "But if the man is lucid enough to make a decision, such as this, then we should listen to him. There is no need to make the man suffer a trip if he's not gonna make it all the way there anyway."

"It's decided then." Rick says. "Shane, come help me move 'im." The two men reluctantly head back into the RV and emerge with the frail, dying man. They continue to carry him to the side of the road and up into the woods. We all follow, and the two men rest Jim against a tree.

"Hey, another damn tree." He says. It makes me smile a little. Shane whispers to him a bit before stepping away to let everyone say their goodbyes. Jacqui kisses him on the cheek, he refuses a gun from Rick, then Dale said goodbye. He was followed by everyone else. Daryl and I stood back until everyone else had left. I step up and crouch down beside him. "You remember what I said, last time we were in a similar situation?" He says as he smiles painfully. I nod at him, trying not to completely break down. "I think you are each other's savior. You need to hold onto that. Never let it go." I smile as tears make their way down my face.

"Okay." I whisper and nod at his words. I stand back up and take a breath before heading back to the road. I pass Daryl on the way down. Soon we are all back on the road. Daryl and I don't speak the rest of the way to the CDC. Hours later, the CDC is in front of us. We all park on the street and get out to check everything out.

Flies are swarming around the many dead bodies on the front lawn of the building. As we get closer the carnage seems to get worse. The smell of the rotting flesh almost makes me gag. Daryl gives me a rag to try and block my nose from the sickening smell. I nod to him in thanks as I place it over my nose and mouth. The rag does not smell that great, but I would rather be smelling this rag than the dead bodies laying all over the ground. The smell gets worse as we get closer to the doors of the building. Everyone is coughing because of the smell. I swat at the flies that come near my face.

The regular doors seem to be covered by protective shield doors to keep things out. My heart falls. There is no way that we are getting in that building. As Shane and Rick try to pry open the protective doors I start to panic. The only one to notice is Lori. She comes over and embraces me. She tries to clam me down. She tells me to breath slower, but it is not working. More panic ensues as walkers are spotted heading towards us. Daryl freaks out on my brother saying that he made the wrong call for us to come here. I bury my face into my sister-in-law's shoulder. Everyone starts to argue about what we should do next, and it is not helping me or anyone. We start to head back to the vehicles when Rick stops us.

"The camera." He says. "It moved."

"You imagined it." Dale says.

"It moved." Rick continues to look into the camera as he talks to it. Is my brother crazy. There is no one alive in there. I try to focus on my breathing. Soon I am handed off to someone else as Lori goes to try and convince Rick to stop trying to get into the building. Somehow the smell of this person is more calming. I look up and see Daryl. He is looking towards where my brother is still fighting to get inside the CDC building. I follow his gaze as the door makes a sound and a bright light blinds us. We all stop what we are doing to see what caused the door to move. Rick looks back at the rest of us before walking inside. The rest of us follow. Let's hope what waits for us inside is better than what is happening to the world out here.

A/N: I couldn't cut this episode in half. I hope everything makes sense to you guys about what is going on between Violet and Daryl. Violet wants to maintain her friendship with Daryl, and she tries to get that back on the way to the CDC. I hope you all like the chapter.


	6. TS-19 Part 1

A/N: Finally another chapter for this story. I have so many now that I am trying to finish them one at a time, and I am so close with the first season here. Anyways, I would really like to read what you guys think about this story so far. I love reviews. Every time I get one I get so happy. Well, happy reading! :)

"Daryl, you cover the back." I hear Shane say. Reluctantly, I step away from Daryl and walk forward with the rest of the group. No one speaks. We're all too nervous about how this has turned out. It seems too good to be true.

"Hello?" Rick says at the head of our group. Everyone with a weapon has it poised to fire. Who is here? How many are here? Were we let in by accident? I feel a smaller hand take mine. I look down to see Carl. His face shows just as much fear as I'm feeling right now. Lori is walking right next to me. It's amazing how a family can be pulled so close by tragic events. "Hello?" My twin calls out again.

"Close those doors." Dale tells Daryl as we all make it inside. "Watch for walkers." I look around at the large open area we are now in. The floors are nicely tiled, and everything looks pretty clean. I guess it makes sense, the CDC should be clean. They're dealing with all sorts of diseases. They don't want them getting out into the public. I hope they have something to end this horror story going on outside.

"Hello?" Rick calls out again as someone, not in our group, cocks their gun. We follow the sound to a man standing at a door off to the side. Everyone with a gun aims it at the man. There are a few tense seconds where no one speaks.

"Anybody infected?" The strange man calls out to us. His voice echos around the space.

"One of our group was." Rick tells him. "He didn't make it." I grip my nephew's hand tighter as I think about Jim. His words are still rattling around in my head.

"Why are you here? What do you want?" The stranger asks us. What does he think we want? We want shelter from the crap going on outside.

"A chance." My brother answers simply.

"That's asking an awful lot these days." The man says as he starts walking towards us. His gun is still pointed at the group.

"I know." Rick replies. We all look at the strange man with hope and fear. Hope that he would let us stay, and fear that he would force us to leave. He looks around at all of us as he decides what he's going to do. I see the gears of his brain working out the pros and cons.

"You all submit to a blood test." The man finally says. "That's the price of admission."

"We can do that." Rick agrees. The man lowers his gun as he speaks again.

"You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes, it stays closed." Daryl, Glenn, Rick and Shane go back out to the vehicles and grabs all the bags. Daryl comes over to me and hands me my bag. I thank him as T-Dog and Dale close the doors. The strange man goes up to an assess pad on the wall. It looks like a more advanced version of the alarm system at our house. He swipes a card and speaks into the system. "VI, seal the main entrance. Kill the power up here." I get a bit confused at his words because he says my nickname. Clearly he's not talking to me. Is there someone else here? The outside door comes down over the glass doors to keep it secure. My brother introduces himself to the man and we find out that the man's name is Dr. Edwin Jenner. We all pack ourselves like sardines into an elevator. I try to keep close to my sister-in-law and my nephew. Daryl is in the back corner, and asks what we all were thinking.

"Doctors always go around packin' heat like that?"

"Oh, there were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself." The doctor answers. I'm still a bit cautious about this man. Something seems off. It almost feels like he's given up. But if that were true, why would he take us in? Why would he save us? Why would he care if we were infected? "But you look harmless enough." He tells us. "Except you." He tries to joke as he looks at Carl. "I'll have to keep my eye on you." I look down at the small boy and see a small smirk on his face, and it makes me smile just a little. The rest of the ride is quiet. We finally reach the level Dr. Jenner wants us to be on. As we walk down the hall the silence is broken.

"Are we underground?" Carol asks. I know the answer is yes. It felt like we were going down in the elevator, and we were already on the ground level.

"Are you claustrophobic?" Dr. Jenner asks her.

"A little." She answers.

"Try not to think about it." He suggests. We enter the large room at the end of the hallway. "VI, bring up the lights in the Big Room." A ring of lights go on above the center of the room and we can all see a group of big computers, and large monitors on the far wall. "Welcome to Zone Five."

"Where is everybody?" Rick asks as we walk further into the room. "The other doctors, the staff?"

"I'm it." Dr. Jenner answers. "It's just me here."

"What about the person you were speaking with?" Lori asks him.

"VI?" I add, trying to make her question a bit more specific.

"VI," He calls out. "Say hello to our guests. Tell them...welcome."

"Hello, guests. Welcome." It's an automated voice.

"Virtual Intelligence." I whisper to myself.

"I'm all that's left." Dr. Jenner clarifies again. I can feel the room almost deflate. "I'm sorry." The man turns around and gathers the materials he will need to take our blood. Rick goes first, and Andrea goes last. She asks him a question before she stands up.

"What's the point? If we were infected, we'd all be running a fever." She points out.

"I've already broken every rule in the book letting you in here." He tells her. "Let me just at least be thorough." He finishes taking her blood. "All done." Jacqui stands near Andrea as she stands up. The blonde woman pauses as she feels slightly dizzy. I should know, I felt that way after he took mine. It just wasn't too effected by it. Things like that I try to hide until I can't hide them anymore. Jacqui helps to steady her. "Are you okay?" The doctor asks.

"She hasn't eaten in days." Jacqui tells him. "None of us have." I see a look of realization flash across the doctor's face. He takes us to what looks to be a cafeteria. There's a round table, and there's a seat for everyone. Rick sits to my left, and Lori and Carl sit to his. Dale is on my right. Dr. Jenner brings out food for us, a few bottles of wine, and some juice for the kids. Dale starts to pour everyone's drinks. I get my glass of wine and guzzle it down. I hate wine, but I need some alcohol in me. I put down my glass and I see everyone just looking at me in shock. Everyone except for my family and Shane.

"What?" I ask. "I hate wine." I say as I look down to the food on my plate.

"If you had some whiskey, she'd be all over it." Shane comments. I shoot a glare his way.

"I might have some if you want." Dr. Jenner offers. I snicker.

"I'm good, but thanks." I say waving him off. "Just pour some more of that nasty shit." I say to Dale as I hold my glass out to him.

"Vi!" Lori scolds. "Language."

"Sorry." I laugh. Everyone joins in as Dale pours more in my glass.

"You know, in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner." Dale says as he hands my glass back to me. "And in France."

"Well," Lori starts as she holds her hand over the top of Carl's cup. "And when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some then." I smile at her protectiveness, but we don't know when this hell will end. We hope it will end soon, but I have a feeling we'll be in this situation for a while.

"What's it gonna hurt?" Rick says. "Come on."

"Yeah, let the kid try it." I say. Dale laughs a bit as my twin and I work our peer pressure tactics on his wife. She just looks at us.

"What?" Rick and I say at the same time. More laughing ensues. Lori lifts her hand off of Carl's cup and Dale takes it to pour the kid a bit of the liquid.

"There you are, young lad." Dale says, handing the cup back to my nephew. The kid takes a sip. Rick chuckles a bit, and as Carl puts the cup down I see his face scrunch up.

"Eww." He says. Everyone at the table laughs at his reaction.

"That's my boy." Lori say. "Just like Auntie Vi." She comments as she pours the rest of Carl's cup in her glass.

"That tastes nasty." My nephew says as the laughing continues.

"Well, just stick to soda pop there, bud." Shane tells him.

"Not you, Glenn." I hear Daryl say as he pours some more wine for himself. I look up at my friend across the room. He's sitting on a counter with a bottle of wine in his hand.

"What?" He asks Daryl as he looks up from the bottle.

"Keep drinkin' little man." Daryl tells him. "I wanna see how red your face can get." All the guys start laughing. I just smile and shake my head at his words. I hear Rick lightly hit his glass with his fork. As everyone quiets down, Rick stands up.

"It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly." He says. We all grab our glasses and hold them up.

"He is more than just our host." T-Dog says.

"Here here!" Dale shouts.

"Here's to you, Doc." Daryl says. "Booyah!" He shouts. Most of us repeat the exclamation. Rick thanks the doctor directly. Many clink glasses together before drinking. I guzzle down my glass again. Laughs start up as I put my glass down, but they quiet down once Shane starts talking.

"So when're you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, Doc?" He says. His words bring down the whole room. "All the, uh, the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened. Where are they?"

"We're celebratin', Shane." Rick tells him. "Don't need to do this now."

"Whoa, wait a second." Shane reacts. "This is why we're here, right?" I glare at the man. Does he really need to do this right now? "This was your move. Supposed to find all the answers. Instead we, uh," He pauses to chuckle a bit. "We found him." He points over his shoulder with his thumb at the doctor. "We found one man. Why?"

"Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just left," Dr. Jenner tells him. "Went off to be with their families." He looks around the room. "And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted."

"Every last one?" Shane asks as he leans back in his chair with a snide smirk on his face.

"No," Jenner replies. "Many couldn't face walking out the door." Oh jeeze. I look down at the food on my plate. "They... opted out. there was a rash of suicides. that was a bad time."

"You didn't leave." Andrea says. "Why?"

"I just kept working. Hoping to do some good." The poor doctor finishes.

"Dude, you are such a buzzkill, man." Glenn says to Shane as he comes to sit in an actual seat instead of on the counter.

"Trust me," I say. "He's always been like that." We finish our food in silence. We clean up our plates and glasses before Dr. Jenner leads us to where we're going to be sleeping for the night.

"Most of the facility is powered down including housing, so you'll have to make do here." The doctor tells us. "The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like. There's a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy." He says as he turns around to Sophia and Carl who were right behind him. "Just don't plug in the video games, okay? Or anything that draws power." He stands up to speak to the rest of us. "The same applies if you shower, go easy on the hot water." Jenner walks into a room as Glenn turns back to look at all of us.

"Hot water?" He asks with a huge smile on his face. Glen then looks to T-dog next to him.

"That's what the man said." T-dog says with a matching smile. We all find rooms to sleep in for the night. I put my bag in a random room before heading to the rec room with my sketchbook and pencil. I wait for everyone to take their showers. I've never really been into hot showers, so being the last won't bother me. Sophia and Carl find a checker set, and they start playing. Soon, Carol joins me on the couch. We just sit in silence as I sketch out the kids in front of me and Carol reads one of the many books from this room. About an hour passes before Lori comes in wearing her PJs and a glass of wine.

"The shower's free, Vi." She tells me. I stand and close my sketchbook before heading to get a change of clothes from my bag. I go to the room I dropped my bag and notice that I'm not alone.

"I guess we're sharing for the night." I say to the man wandering the room. He didn't even know I had come in. He turns to see me rummaging through my bag.

"Don't wanna stay with your family?" Daryl asks.

"Well, I consider most of the people we're here with as my family." I tell him.

"Most?" He asks.

"Yeah," I tell him. "Shane's just the ass following the group." I joke with a smile. I get Daryl to smirk a bit. "I'm gonna head to the showers." I tell him as I gather my change of clothes. "You get your pick of where to sleep on this room. I'll sleep wherever." I start to head out the door when he speaks up.

"Be careful." He says. I look over my shoulder at him.

"I won't take long." I say with a smile. "If I'm not back in five minutes you can come check on me." With that, I walk to the shower not looking back at the clearly shocked expression on Daryl's face. I turn on the water. I test the temperature with my hand. Cold, just as I like it. I strip down before getting in. I get my hair wet before squirting some of the supplied shampoo in my hand. I lather it in and rinse it out. As I start washing my body I hear the door to the shower room open. "I don't think it's been five minutes yet." I say, but there's no reply. "I'll be done in a second." Still no answer and I know whoever it is hasn't left.

I feel like I'm being watched. I quickly rinse off before turning the water off and grabbing a towel to dry off. I wrap it around me before grabbing my clothes from the floor. I know it's not Daryl. He and many others would've said something. The silence is unnerving, and making me extremely nervous. I head towards the door quickly, but before I get there someone grabs me from behind. One arm is around my middle and the other hand is over my mouth to keep my screams from reaching outside the door. I drop my clothes and try to pry his hand from my mouth, and try to wiggle away from his grasp. I feel his breath on the back of my left ear.

"Where do ya think you're goin' Vi?" I hear a familiar slurring voice. Shane. My fear becomes anger. How dare he come after me like this? He pulls me back from the door and towards the shower. I continue to try and escape. What is he planning to do? Slowly my fear returns as he pushes me against the wall of the shower and turns the water back on. I try to reach back to his face to try and get him to let go. "I was the one to teach you those tactics, Vi." He says. I feel him reach for where my towel ends. I panic more and try to push his hand away from where it wants to go. But, because of the awkward angle I can't stop him. His hand slides up my thigh slowly. He kisses my neck as he speaks again. "I'm sure you're wondering why." I feel a tear form and fall, blending with the water running down my face. "And the simple answer is that you're my backup. Lori rejected me, and now it's your turn." I feel his hand moving ever closer as I squeeze my eyes shut. The opening of the door stops the hand from continuing.

"Vi?" I hear the heavy southern drawl sound. I start to relax a bit. He actually took my words to heart. "You okay?" He asks as I hear him walk closer. "Vi?" The walking stops, and the hand continues on it's mission. I start to breath heavily and try to scream through the hand over my mouth. The footsteps that had stopped started up again, and this time they were faster. Shane finally pulled away from me as Daryl came around the corner. They're face to face just outside the shower. I sink down to sit on the floor, the water still hitting me. I can't hold back the tears as Daryl makes eye contact with me. He looks back to Shane and throws a punch into my attacker's face. Shane drops to the floor holding his eye. "You better get outta here. 'Fore I beat chu to death." Shane pauses. He looks to me, then back to Daryl before standing up and leaving the shower room.

Once the door closes I let out a sob. I feel the water stop hitting the top of my head. There are no words necessary for us to say to each other. He helps me stand up, and gives me a dry towel to replace the now wet one I have around me. He waits outside to guard the door as I change into my PJs. I finish changing and exit the shower room. I look to the left and see Daryl leaning against the wall next to the door. He holds out a hand to me, and I reluctantly take it. He pulls me towards him as we walk down the hall, and he lets go of my hand to wrap his arm around my shoulders. I lean into him, feeling the safest I've been in a while. We enter the room we had picked and I stop in the doorway.

"So, where did you pick to sleep?" I ask him. There is a chair and a couch.

"You take the couch." He tells me. "I've slept on the ground enough to be comfortable just 'bout anywhere." I open my mouth to protest, but he hold up a hand to stop me. "Don't chu dare, Vi. I don't wanna hear it." I close my mouth and start to get comfortable on the couch. "You gonna tell your brother 'bout Shane?" I think about it, and try to decide what I should do.

"Shane said something about Lori declining his advances." I say. "She must've gone through something like I did tonight. If she says something, I will." I finish a I roll over to face the back of the couch. I try to go to sleep, but I can't get what happened out of my head. Every time I close my eyes I see his face. I feel his hand on my thigh. I feel my eyes well up with tears. They fall silently as I try to keep from sobbing. I don't want to wake Daryl. I'm sure he's asleep by now.

"You alright?" I hear him ask in the dark. I jump a little. I thought he'd be asleep by now. "Wanna talk about it?" I shake my head no, but realize that he probably can't see what I'm doing.

"No. I'll be fine." I say as my voice betrays me by cracking. I feel him sit in front of the couch.

"Hey, nothin's gonna happen to you." He tells me. "I won't let it." Those words confuse me. Why would he say that? "Get some sleep." He says softly. I've never heard his voice get that way before.

"Daryl?"

"Yeah." He replies to me.

"You can say no if you want, but can you lay with me?" I ask him.

"There's not a lot of room." He says with a slight chuckle.

"Spooning would save room." I say with a smile. There is a slight pause before I feel him lay down behind me. I smile to myself as we get more comfortable. his left arm is under my head and his right is wrapped around my mid section. I can feel his breath on the back of my neck. Finally, I feel like I can relax, and soon I fall into the best sleep I've had in quite a while.


	7. TS-19 Part 2

I wake up to the sound of a knock on the door. I'm a bit surprised to hear someone groaning behind me until the events from last night come back to me. I take a breath to calm myself. Slowly the arms around me start to pull away. I let out a groan myself as Daryl's warmth is replaced by the colder temperature of the room. I hear him get up from the couch and walk to the door.

"What?" Daryl asks a bit harshly after opening the door to see who was there.

"Just wanted to see if Vi was up." I hear my twin say. I chuckle as I sit up in bed.

"Shouldn't you be able to sense it or something?" I ask loud enough for the guys to hear me. "You are my twin after all."

"Well, you weren't before I knocked were you?" He asks knowingly. I stand from the couch and head towards the door.

"I guess." I smile as I walk around Daryl so I can see my brother. "I'll head down to the cafeteria in a minute." Rick nods in reply before walking off down the hallway. I step away from the door and go to my bag to get a change of clothes. Daryl shuts the door and does the same. I face one corner of the room and start changing. I didn't even think about the fact that Daryl is also changing in the same room. Once done, I put my PJs back in my bag and look over to Daryl to see if he's ready to go.

"Go ahead." He tells me, and I leave to get some food. I have a slight headache that will get much worse if I don't eat something soon. I run to the cafeteria and see that Shane hasn't arrived yet.

"Hey Aunt Vi!" My nephew say way too loud for my liking.

"Hey kid." I answer him. "We got some food? My headache is gonna get worse without at least some eggs."

"Lucky for you, pretty lady, I just finished cookin' 'em." T-dog says. "They're powdered, but - but I do 'em good." He finishes, stretching out the last word. I hear a groan across the table as eggs are placed on a plate and set in front of me. "I bet cha can't tell." T-dog says as I look across the table to see Glenn in serious pain. His hangover must be insane right now. I laugh to myself.

"Protein helps the hangover." I tell him as T-dog puts some more eggs on the poor man's plate. I hear a rattling to my right and see that Rick has a bottle of pills in his hand.

"Where'd all this come from?" He asks.

"Jenner." Lori answers him.

"Could you help me, please?" My brother asks her as he holds the bottle of pills out to her. Lori nods as she takes it from his hand and starts opening it.

"He thought we could use it." She says.

"Thank you." Rick says.

"Some of us, at least." She says as she looks over to Glenn.

"Send a couple my way too please." I chuckle.

"Don't ever, ever, ever, let me drink again." Glenn groans as Lori passes out the pills. I down mine with the orange juice in front of me.

"Hey." I hear the voice greet the room. I tense up and look to Lori.

"Hey." Rick answers back. Shane walks by the table to get his own food. "Feel as bad as I do?"

"Worse." Came the man's answer. Lori is just looking down at her plate, so I do the same.

"The hell happened to you?" I hear T-dog ask him. "Your neck and eye?"

"Must've done it in my sleep." Shane makes up an excuse as he sits across the table from us.

"Never seen you do that before." Rick says.

"Me neither." Shane agrees. "Not like me at all." I look up a little bit and send a glare his way. I look back to Lori to see that she is looking at me. I nod slightly to answer the question she clearly wanted to ask.

"Mornin'." I hear Jenner say as he heads straight over to get coffee.

"Hey, doc." Shane greets him.

"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing-" Dale starts to say, but Jenner interrupts him.

"But you will anyway." That's when I feel someone come up behind me and look over my shoulder. I look at the person and see Daryl. I shoot him a weak smile before he walks around the table to get some food for himself.

"We didn't come here for the eggs." Andrea speaks the obvious. A slightly awkward silence falls over the room. We finish our food pretty quickly, and then Jenner leads us back to that big room with all the computers. He goes to one of the computers and presses a few buttons as he speaks to the AI.

"Give me playback of TS-19." He says. As the group walks farther into the room, I stay back by the door. Something doesn't feel right.

"Playback of TS-19." The A.I. repeats. The large screen in front of us boots up.

"Few people ever got a chance to see this." Jenner starts. "Very few." The visuals were an X-ray of a person, brain and all.

"Is that a brain?" My nephew asks.

"An extraordinary one." Jenner says, turning to the boy to answer him. "Not that it matters in the end." He continues as he turns back to the screen. Everyone is walking farther into the room as Jenner continues to speak. I can sense the mood in Jenner's voice. Something is really not right, so I stay where I am by the door. No one notices. "Take us in for E.I.V.."

"Enhanced internal view." The A.I. says as the picture changes from a direct view of the subject's face to a side view. It looks like whoever it is, is laying down on a table. It zooms in to the brain. Lights can be seen flashing through the person's brain. It is amazing. I see many members of our group sit down in my peripheral vision. I am sucked into the image on the screen.

"What are those lights?" I hear Shane ask.

"It's a person's life," Jenner begins to explain. "Experiences, memories. It's everything." He points to the screen. "Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you. The thing that makes you unique, and human." It's beautiful. Every single one of us is so different, even Rick and I. Each of us has that image going on in our brains right now. But like a snowflake, each one is just a little different. No two the same.

"You don't make sense ever?" I hear Daryl ask. I smile at his words.

"Those are synapses," Jenner explains further. "Electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says, does or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death."

"Death?" Rick pipes up. "That's what this is, a vigil?" He walks closer to Jenner.

"Yes." The doctor answers simply. "Or rather the playback of the vigil."

"This person died?" Andrea asks. "Who?"

"Test subject 19." Jenner says. "Someone who was bitten and infected," He pauses. I can hear the sadness in his voice as he speaks. It must have been someone he was close to. "And volunteered to have us record the process." He directs his attention to the scree as he directs the A.I.. "VI, scan forward to the first event."

"Scanning to first event." The visuals pull out of the brain so we can see the person laying down again. This time, a darkness is present and working its way through the brain.

"What is that?" Glenn asks. I continue to stay silent as I watch from the door.

"It invades the brain like Meningitis." Jenner explains. "The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown," The darkness overtakes more and more of the brain as he speaks. "Then the major organs." The brain goes completely dark, and no sparks of life are left. Breath escapes me as my own brain processes what just happened. This person died before our eyes. "Then death. Everything you ever were or ever will be...gone."

"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia's small voice pierces through the silence of the room as she asks her mother the question.

"Yes." Carol answers her. There is no reason for her to lie. This is the world we are in now. As I think of the ones we've lost, I feel myself start to tear up. Jenner looks to Andrea, whom is the closest. She's crying, remembering her sister's death.

"She lost somebody two days ago." Lori tells him. "Her sister." The doctor walks up to Andrea.

"I lost somebody too." He tells her. "I know how devastating it is." At that moment, my thoughts were confirmed. TS-19 is that somebody he was speaking of. "Scan to the second event." He tells the computer.

"Scanning to second event."

"The resurrection times vary wildly." He says as the screen speeds up the time. "We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of was eight hours. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute...seven seconds." Suddenly, a pinkish reddish light flash through the bottom portion of the brain, by the neck.

"It restarts the brain?" I finally speak. Few turn to look towards me.

"No, jut the brain stem." Jenner says as he turns to look at me over his shoulder then back to the screen. "Basically, it gets them up and moving."

"But they're not alive?" Rick asks. Jenner looks at him and gestures to the screen.

"You tell me." The doctor says. Rick looks to the screen.

"It's nothin' like before." My twin points out. "Most of that brain is dark."

"Dark, lifeless, dead." Jenner says. "The frontal lobe, the Neocortex, the human part, that doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct." Something pops onto the screen, and suddenly there is a hole through the brain. They shot the test subject. They had to put them down.

"God. What was that?" Carol reacts.

"He shot his patient in the head." Andrea answers. "Didn't you?"

"VI, power down the main screen and the workstations." Jenner says.

"Powering down main screen and work stations."

"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea asks Jenner.

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal." He's listing off all of these things, but he's not being specific.

"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui adds.

"There is that." The doctor says.

"Somebody must know something." Andrea speaks again. "Somebody somewhere." I continue to watch the good doctor's expressions.

"There are others, right?" Carol asks. "Other facilities?"

"There may be some." Jenner answers. "People like me."

"But you don't know?" I ask as I start to slowly walk down the stairs.

"How can you not know?" Rick adds.

"Everything went down." Jenner answers yet another question. "Communications, directives...all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month."

"So it's not just here." I say as I stop half way down the stairs.

"There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing?" Andrea asks. "That's what you're really saying, right?" There is a long pause as that information sinks in. I sink down to sit on the stair below me. I take some deep breaths as I bury my face in my hands with my elbows resting on my knees. Is there really nothing? "Jesus."

"Man, I'm gonna get shitfaced drunk again." I hear Daryl say.

"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but..." Dale says. I uncover my face and follow the older man's movement to the other side of the room. "That clock..." He points. "It's counting down." I look to the digital clock on the wall and see what he's talking about. Why would there be a clock counting down? "What happens at zero?"

"The basement generators, they run out of fuel." Jenner answers.

"Then what?" I ask as I stand up.

"VI, what happens when the power runs out?" Rick asks the virtual intelligence when Jenner just walked away from the question.

"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur."

"That doesn't sound like a good thing." I say. My twin got Shane, Glenn, and T-dog to help look at the generators. A few minutes after they leave, the rest of us go back to the rooms. I go back to the room I slept in with Daryl following behind me, to pack all my things up. I have a feeling we'll all need to leave quickly soon. Daryl has the same idea. Suddenly, the lights go out.

"Emergency lighting on." Says VI. Not good. I bring my things into the next room where Lori and Carl are spending their time.

"Vi, what's wrong?" Lori asks me.

"I have a bad feeling about that countdown. Everyone needs to pack up their things." As I finish my sentence the air goes off. Lori and I look up at the vent. She holds her hand up to see if anything is coming through.

"Mom?" Carl asks. "Something wrong?" She looks to me before she answers the boy.

"Uh, nothin'. It's just...the air conditioning stopped." My sister-in-law starts rushing around the room collecting everything. "Carl, baby, can you start packin' up your things?"

"Sure." The kid stands from the cot and makes sure all his things are in his bag. I walk back to the room Daryl's in as the lights turn completely off in the rooms. Suddenly Jenner comes around the corner. He's dressed nice and has a lab coat on.

"Why's the air off?" Lori asks him.

"And the lights in our room?" Carol asks the man.

"What's goin' on?" Daryl asks as he pops out of the door of the room with a bottle of alcohol in his hand. "Why is everythin' turnin' off?" As Jenner walks by Daryl he takes the bottle from his hand. All of us are now following the doctor through the halls.

"Energy use is being prioritized." He answered.

"Air isn't a priority?" Dale asks. "And lights?" Jenner takes a swig of the alcohol before answering.

"It's not up to me. Zone five is shutting itself down." What does that mean?

"Hey!" Daryl yells. "Hey, what the hell does that mean?" Jenner doesn't answer. He just continues walking. "Hey, man, I'm talkin' to you. What do you mean it's shuttin' itself down? How can a building do anything?"

"You'd be surprised." Jenner answers. We hear the group that went down to check the generators run into the main area of the building, but we're on the floor above them.

"Rick?" Lori calls to my brother. We go down the stairs to meet up with them.

"Jenner, what's happening?" Rick asks the doctor.

"The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power." Jenner answers. "It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That started as we approached the half-hour mark." We walk into the room with all the computers and the clock is at thirty one minutes and twenty eight seconds. "Right on schedule." He takes another gulp from the bottle in his hand. We all gather around the man. What is happening? You could cut the tension in this room with a knife. The doctor holds the bottle out to Daryl, and he snags it from the doctor's hand. "It was the French."

"What?" Andrea asks.

"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know." Jenner explains. "While our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs til' the end. They thought they were close to a solution."

"What happened?" Jacqui asks what we're all thinking

"Same thing that's happening here." Jenner says. "No power grid. Ran outta juice. The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?"

"Let me tell you somethin'-"Shane seethes as he rushes up to Jenner. Rick tries to hold Sane back a bit.

"To hell with it, Shane. I don't even care." Rick says before turning to the rest of us. "Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We're gettin' outta here now!" He yells to us. With that, we all head back towards the door. An alarm starts going off before we are even to the doorway. "What's that?" The main screen in the room lights up with a thirty minute count down clock.

"thirty minutes to decontamination." The computer says.

"Doc, what's goin' on here?" Daryl yells from right next to me.

"Everybody," Shane yells over the alarm. "Y'all heard Rick. Get your stuff and let's go! Go now! Go!" As we head towards the doors metal barriers lock us away from exiting.

"Did you just lock us in?" Glenn asks. "He just locked us in!" Everyone is panicking now. I feel wind rush me on one side only to notice that it was because Daryl had charged the doctor at the computers.

"You son of a bitch!" Daryl yells.

"Daryl! Stop!" I yell as my brother yells for Shane to stop him.

"You locked us in here!" Daryl screams. It takes Shane and T-dog to keep the redneck from bashing in the doctor's head with the bottle in his hand. I walk over to the three men to see if I can calm down Daryl a little. I know how he feels, but I tend to not show it on the outside. Maybe that's why I get panic attacks sometimes. Holding everything in isn't good, and having it build up until I break isn't good either. As I try to talk Daryl from his fury I hear Rick talk to Jenner.

"Hey, Jenner, open that door now." My brother says.

"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down. the emergency exits are sealed.

"Well, open the damn things." Dale says.

"That's not something I control." Jenner says. "The computers do. I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that." By this time I was able to calm down Daryl enough that he didn't need to be restrained. I turn to face the doctor. "It's better this way."

"What is?" Rick asks. "What happens in twenty eight minutes?" The doctor goes back to typing on one of the computers. Rick turned mad real quick. "What happens in twenty eight minutes!" He yells at the doctor. Jenner stands and yell back.

"You know what this place is?! We protected the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! Ever!" I stare at the doctor not really knowing if I'm feeling nothing or everything at once. Jenner sits back down. "In the event of a catastrophic power failure. In a terrorist attack, for example. H.I.T.s are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."

"H.I.T.s?" Rick asks.

"VI, define." Jenner says.

"H.I.T.s, high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consist of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear." The place is gonna blow up. "The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen at between five thousand and six thousand degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired." I feel a hand grab mine. I look to see Daryl trying to stay as calm as he can without charging Doctor Jenner.

"It sets the air on fire." Jenner says. "No pain. An end to sorrow, grief...regret. Everything." How can this be happening? He's just gonna kill us along with himself? Daryl's hand leaves my own as he heads past Jenner and to the door at the back of the room. Others join him in trying to physically open the doors, including Rick.

"Open the damn door!" Daryl yells when nothing works. I see Shane grab a hatchet and charge the door.

"Outta my way!" Shane shouts as he starts chopping at the door. Another hatchet is found and tossed to Daryl. I hurry over to Carl and Lori. Carol and Sophia are nearby. Both mothers and children are crying. This is no way to die. These kids are too young. they haven't lived a full life yet.

"You should've left well enough alone. It would've been so much easier." Jenner says.

"Easier for who?" Lori asks him.

"All of you. You know what's out there." Jenner answers. "A short, brutal life and an agonizing death." I try to be strong by holding back my tears, but they push through anyway. As Jenner speaks again rage builds instead. "Your. Your sister." He says to Andrea. "What was her name?" I stand up and stand between them.

"No!" I yell at him. The room goes silent at my echoing voice. "No, you don't get to try and convince us to do it your way!" I point a finger in his face then towards the door we want to leave out of. "Yeah, it's a terrifying world out there, but we're not gonna give up because you say there's no hope." My voice quiets down, but everyone can hear me still. "There is always hope. Can't you see it in this room?" I look around at our group then back at Jenner. "We never would have crossed paths if not for this shit going down. We come from completely different backgrounds. We're different ages. But we're working together towards the same thing. Survival. We all want to live. We want to prove to the ones who gave up that there was hope. There is hope. At least I do." I look around at the room again. Some are nodding their heads in agreement, and others are staring at Jenner hoping he gets what I'm trying to tell him. Waiting for his response.

"But you do want this." Jenner says looking to Rick now. "Last night, you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead." At those words my face falls as I look to my brother.

"Are you serious?" I ask him in disbelief. He just stays quiet.

"What?" Shane asks. "You really said that? After all your big talk?"

"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" Rick finally speaks. I just shake my head, still not believing what's coming out of his mouth.

"There is no hope. There never was." Jenner says.

"Yes there is!" I yell again. "There's always been hope."

"Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody somewhere-" Rick says before being cut off by Andrea.

"What part of 'everything's gone' do you not understand?" She says. I understand she's had a dark cloud over her head recently, but that doesn't mean we should join her under it.

"Listen to your friend." Jenner says. "She gets it. This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event."

"I refuse to believe that." I say. "If this were meant to wipe us all out, we'd all be dead by now. We'd all be like those things outside already. This is meant to be a test. Maybe a cruel joke by some higher power, but I believe it's meant to weed out those who aren't strong enough to go on. Survival of the fittest. You are a true coward. And I will not be sucked into your weakness. Maybe some of us will die out there, but at least we'd know it was our choice. That we got farther than someone like you." I hear the cocking of a gun from behind me.

"Shane! No!" My twin yells trying to stop Shane from doing something foolish.

"Out of the way, Rick!" Shane yells back and pushes my twin away from himself. I turn around and stare at the crazed man before me. "Move!" He yells at me.

"Vi." Rick says quietly as he holds out his hand. He wants me to come over to him and move away from the gun pointed at my chest right now. I do as he wants and Shane points the gun at the doctor.

"Open that door." Shane orders the man. "Or I'm gonna blow your head off. Do you hear me?!" Rick walks closer to Shane and talks in his ear.

"Brother, brother, this is not the way you do this." My twins efforts to talk down his friend aren't quite working yet. "We will never get outta here."

"Shane, you listen to him." I hear Lori say. Out of the corner of my eye I see Daryl walk closer to me as he watches Rick and Shane.

"It's too late." Shane says.

"He dies, we all die." Rick says. Shane then screams out his frustrations and I brace for him to pull the trigger of his gun and truly trap us in here. He does pull the trigger, but he moves to shoot at the computers instead. "Shane!" Rick shouts as he wrestles the gun from his friends hands. Then he knocks Shane to the ground. I move to try and help in some way only to have Daryl's arms holding me back.

"Are you crazy?" He whispers in my ear. "You'll only get yourself hurt."

"I'm not that defenseless." I whisper back.

"Maybe not, but let's not risk it." Why would he care? I look over at my brother standing over Shane and calm down a little. Daryl's arms don't leave their position around me, though.

"Are you done now?" Rick asks the man on the ground. "Are you done?"

"Yeah, I guess we all are." Shane replies. Rick turns around and hands the gun to T-dog before looking around the group. When he looks towards Daryl and I the corner of his mouth curves up slightly. I shake my head as if to say 'not now', but I know he's gonna talk to me about it later if we get out of this. No! When. I still have hope. He continues to look around the room before turning back to Jenner.

"I think you're lying." He tells the doctor.

"What?" Came the doctor's reply.

"You're lying." Rick repeats. "About no hope. Violet's right. There is hope. And you want to know how I know?" Silence was the reply so Rick continued. "If that were true, you'd have bolted with the rest, or taken the easy way out. You didn't. You chose the hard path. Why?"

"It doesn't matter." Jenner answers. I feel Daryl's arms leave mea nd I miss the warmth and safety of them already. I look over at him as he heads back to the door.

"It does matter. It always matters." Rick tells him. "You stayed when others ran. Why?"

"Not because I wanted to." Came the reply. "I made a promise..." He points to the screen we had been watching minutes ago. "To her. My wife."

"Test subject 19 was your wife?" Lori asks.

"She begged me to keep going as long as I could." He said. "How could I say no?" I hear Daryl continue trying to knock down the metal door. "She was dying. It should've been me on that table. It wouldn't have mattered to anybody. She was a loss to the world. Hell, she ran this place. I just worked here. In our field, she was an Einstein. Me? I'm just...Edwin Jenner. She could've done something about this. Not me."

"Your wife didn't have a choice." I speak up once again. The doctor looks at me. "You do...now. Right now. That's exactly what we want. A choice, a chance, to live, to survive this Hell on earth."

"Let us keep trying as long as we can." Lori adds with a slight shake in her voice. The doctor thinks through what to do before finally deciding.

"I told you topside's locked down. I can't open those." He moves around Rick and down to a computer on a lower level. He enters something into a small keypad. Once he finishes entering in the code, the door Daryl was hacking at unlocks and opens.

"Come on!" He calls to all of us. I rush out with the rest of them and run to the room Where Lori and Carl had been before we came down here. I notice a few don't follow us out, but there's no time. If they want to do this, then so be it. It is their choice. That's the whole point. We're choosing to go on and they are choosing to end it here. Once I know Lori and Carl are all packed up I check on the room Daryl and I were in. His bag was still here, but he wasn't. I peak my head out into the Hall.

"Hey! Anyone seen Daryl?" I ask.

"He went to start trying to get out the front with T-dog." I hear my brother say as he rushes by me. I pick up Daryl's bag and mine and run down to the front foyer area. When we all get down there, T-dog, Daryl, Shane, and Rick are trying to break the windows open so we can get out. When hitting it does nothing but scratch it a little Shane picks up a gun once again. He shoots at the window, but it barely makes a dent.

"The glass won't break?" I hear Sophia ask. I look over to the little girl and her mother. She gets an idea and rifles through her own bag.

"Rick." Carol says as she walks over to my brother. "I have something that might help."

"Carol, I don't think a nail file's gonna do it." Shane says.

"Shut up, Shane." I snap at him. "Your attitude definitely doesn't help."

"Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform I found this in your pocket." She pulls the object from her bag and I see that she's holding a grenade. I stand there in shock for a second before Rick grabs the explosive and heads towards the window. Daryl rushes over to me, grabs his bag from my shoulder then grabs my hand to get me farther away from the explosion that would hopefully set us free. We get down on the ground next to each other I cover my head with my free hand as I keep a tight grip of Daryl's with my other.

I hear the click of the pin being pulled out, Rick dropping it on the ground, and him cursing as he runs away from the explosion. The tinkling sound of glass falling to the floor makes me smile. Daryl and I get up and run to the now shattered window. Daryl lets go of my hand to jump down. I hand him my bag then his. Then he helps me down safely. We then pick up our bags and run to the vehicles still parked outside. There were a few walkers in our way, but they were easily taken care of. Daryl and I run to the truck with Merle's bike in the back. I briefly look back to the building we just escaped and see Andrea and Dale jump out the window. As we wait for them to get to us, I know time is ticking by. I hear someone honk the horn of the RV.

"Shit." Daryl and I say at the same time. I brace for the explosion and Daryl covers me. The explosion was something like I've never felt before. The force and heat were felt from where we were. It seemed like it lasted forever. When everything settled Daryl and I looked out at the now demolished CDC building. All we can hear is our deep breathing.

"Holy shit." I say in shock as the flames continue to burn the fallen walkers and shrubs that were too close to escape. I see Glenn open the door of the RV to let Dale and Andrea in. "We could've died in there."

"Yeah, but we didn-" I interrupt him by placing a hand on each side of his face and bringing his lips to meet mine. I was a bit surprised when he returned my actions. I feel like I'm on top of the world. It never felt like this when I used to kiss Shane. It's hard to explain. It just feels right to me. When I pull away I look into his gorgeous green eyes.

"I've wanted to do that for the longest time." I tell him as I try to catch my breath.

"Wow." Is the only thing he's able to say before both of us see that our convoy is heading off without us. I see a smirk grow on his face as he starts up the car. "Don't wanna be left behind." I giggle and lean back in the passenger seat with my feet on the dashboard as he accelerates to catch up with the rest.

Maybe this world is a crap shoot now, but it could end up being a good thing after all. Maybe it was fate. Could I have found my soulmate in all this mess? Maybe not. But I think this is as close as I'll ever get. And it feels so good. I can't stop smiling.

A/N: Well, that finishes season 1. What do you guys think? Sorry it took so long. I had a lot of things going on in my life and I was trying to decide of them kissing at the end here was too soon. Is it too soon? Or do you think it was the right time? I look forward to reading your comments and reviews.


	8. What Lies Ahead Part 1

I have tried to get back to my drawings. Jacqui's pictures are hard to go back to, now that she is no longer with us. I try to remember what the doctor looked like. My goal is to draw everyone I meet. Everyone whose helped me and my family. I start a new one of Daryl, too. The view of him from the passenger seat was perfect. About a day later, our group decided that we needed to downsize so we don't use up so much of the gasoline we collect. That's when Daryl decided that he'd ride Merle's bike instead of taking the entire truck.

I handed most of my belongings to Lori to keep in the RV and I went over to Daryl. I told him I've never ridden a motorcycle before. He smiles at me and motions for me to get on behind him, and he tells me to hold on tight. I do as he says. I have to say, I've never felt so free before. The wind in my hair felt amazing.

Rick's plan is to try for Fort Benning. It's the only option we have right now. We siphon gas from the vehicles we come across and hope we can last a bit longer down the road. Instead of us driving at the back of the convoy, Daryl and I are now in front. I bury my head in his back between his shoulder blades as we ride down the highway. When we start to slow down I lift my head up to see what's going on. What I see is not good.

There's an accident. A tipped over truck and some cars backed up, keeping us from going any further. Well, keeping the RV and the Jeep from going any further. Carefully, Daryl weaves between the cars and trucks to figure out what to do. Once we find a path big enough for the other vehicles to get through, he turns us around. We stop at the RV's driver's side window.

"See a way through?" Dale asks us loud enough for us to hear him over the rumble of the bike's engine.

"Just follow us." I answer. Slowly we lead the convoy through the mess of cars. I look around and think of all the people that must have died in all this. The solemn feel of this place is palpable. A strange bursting noise startles me from behind. Daryl stops and I get off. I head back to the RV to see what's broken now. "What's happened now, Dale?" I ask as the occupants from the RV make their way out.

"I said it. Didn't I say it?" Dale says. "A thousand times. Dead in the water." I see the smoke coming from where the engine is.

"Problem Dale?"Shane asks him.

"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of-" Dale interrupts himself as he looks past me seeming to realize something. "Okay that was dumb." I smile at him.

"I'm sure we could find somthing to fix up Old Faithful here." I tell him.

"There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find." I hear Daryl say from behind me.

"That's true." I say, turning to him. "These people won't be using these things anytime soon."

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start." T-dog adds.

"Maybe some water?" Carol asks.

"Or food." Glenn adds.

"This is a graveyard." Lori comments. Everyone stops what they're doing to look at her. "I don't know how I feel about this."

"All right, all right, here we go." T-dog says as we continue to gather supplies.

"Come on, y'all. Just look around." Shane tells us. I help Daryl look through the car he's currently sifting through. "Gather what you can." A small backpack is tossed to me.

"You might like what's in there." Daryl says as he continues to look through the belongings in the back of the car. I open the backpack to see a sketchbook and some pencils. I never thought about running out of room in my sketchbook, or that I wouldn't have enough pencils. I used to have so many pencils. I had a few in every room just in case something popped into my head. I zip up the bag and put one of my arms through the straps so I can continue the scavenging of these cars.

"Thanks." I say to Daryl in a soft voice. "I don't know what I would do if I ran out of paper and pencils." I laugh softly, and he returns it before going to help T-dog with gathering the gas. I continue to look through the luggage of the former owners of the stuff. There were frilly blouses and dresses, but I was more drawn to the graphic tees. I collected everything, but the two comic t-shirts that would fit me I shove in my small backpack with my new sketchbook.

A few minutes go by when I hear Shane and Glenn talking excitedly about water. I look towards them then up to Dale. He looks through his binoculars with concern. I look down to Rick as he looks through his rifle site. His concern also grows as he makes sure his gun is loaded and steady in his grip before looking through his site again. I look in the direction he is and notice that there is a herd of those abominations headed our way.

"Shit." I say to myself before running to the rest of our group with Rick to warn everyone. I hear Rick get to Lori, Carol and the kids, so I go ahead to Daryl and T-dog. "Guys!" I whisper yell to them as I take a sharpened pencil from the small backpack I have, just in case. They both look to me. "Get cover, now!" They look behind me and do as I say. Daryl scoots under a truck and I scoot under the car next to the truck he's under. I take deep breaths as I watch the legs of the walkers go by. I look over at Daryl and our eyes meet.

One of the walkers ends up tripping and falling prone closer to me. I shake with fear as it notices and reaches for me. Before I know what I'm doing, I quickly extend my arm with force and stab the pencil through it's eye. I let go of the pencil as the creature slumps to the ground, finally dead. I bring my hands to my mouth to keep my panic from being vocally expressed. The smell of the blood reaches my nose and I have to keep myself from retching on the spot.

Once the coast is clear, the dead walker is rolled away from me, and I'm dragged out from under the car. I grab onto the person for dear life as they hold me close. I then hear the panicked cries of one of the kids. I look towards the side of the road the cries are coming from, but I can't see anything through all the vehicles in my way.

"Go." Says the person holding me. I look up at him now. "I'll get T-dog." He tells me. I quickly bring his lips to mine before standing up and running towards the cries, now they're Carol's. I watch as my twin's figure runs into the woods. Sophia must have run away, but I know Rick can help her. I go over to Carl and hug him close to me as Lori tries to console Carol. When Rick pops trough the tree line he's alone. My breathe hitches in my throat. Where is Sophia? I hug Carl closer to me.

"Daryl, Shane, Glenn!" Rick calls out. "I need your help!" Daryl rushes past us and down the hill, Shane and Glenn follow. They walk off into the woods. It doesn't take long for Shane and Glenn to come back. They say that they're on her trail, but somehow I feel like this isn't going to end well. Shane starts us with clearing room for the RV to turn around.

I sit in the RV working on my sketch of Sophia. She's smiling on the page, but I know she's running around terrified among those trees. Glenn brought me the pencil I killed the walker with. I shook my head at his actions. Why would I need a pencil covered in walker blood? But, I took it anyway. I'm on T-Dog watch duty. While he was trying to get cover he cut his arm pretty bad on some glass. I tied a cloth tight above the injury to stop the blood flow, but I don't know how else to deal with it. I'm not a doctor.

"Hey, aunt Vi." I hear Carl say as he runs into the RV. I snap my head up to smile at my nephew. I close my sketchbook as he drops some rolled up leather on the small table. "Look what I found." He unrolls it and I see a set of weapons. They look immaculate.

"Wow." I say. I pick up the hatchet and look at it with amazement. "I remember when your grandfather taught your dad and I how to cut wood with one of these." I tell the boy. "I've never felt so powerful in my life." I test the sharpness of the blade and am happy to see that is the sharpest it can be. "I'll be taking this one." I tell Carl as I ruffle his hair.

"Shane said to give them to Dale." He says in a sad voice. I look over the boy's shoulder to see Dale walking in.

"Well, Dale, can I get your permission to keep this?" I hold up the hatchet with a smile.

"As long as you don't kill any of us with it." He chuckles. With his answer I put the handle through my belt using the head of the hatchet to keep it in place. "How's the patient doing?"

"As good as can be expected." I say as I stand and head back to the small bed in the back where T-dog is. "How you feeling?" I ask the man.

"Could be better." He chuckles.

"Alright, continue keeping an eye on him." Dale says.

"Sure thing." I answer before he leaves the RV with Carl following him out.

As the sun sets we all get ready to leave. They have to be back with Sophia soon, and we gotta get outta here as soon as they get back.

"Oh God, they're back." I hear Glenn say outside the RV. I look back at T-dog.

"Go ahead." He says. "I'm not dying anytime soon." I stand up and exit the RV before walking over to the side of the road. My heart drops when I only see Rick and Daryl returning and Carol continuing to break down.

"Out in the dark's no good." Daryl tells her when I get close enough to hear them. "We'd just be trippin' over ourselves. More people get lost."

"But she's 12. She can't be out there on her own." Carol cries. "You didn't find anything?"

"I know this is hard. But I'm asking you not to panic." Rick tries to calm her down. "We know she was out there."

"And we tracked her for a while." Daryl adds.

"We have to make this an organized effort." Rick continues. "Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this." I look to Daryl as a slight pause is broken by Carol.

"Is that blood?" She asks. She starts breathing heavily as her panic takes over.

"We took down a walker." Rick explains.

"Walker?" Carol asks. "Oh my God."

"There was no sign it was anywhere near Sophia." He tries to console her.

"How can you know that?" Andrea asks. I look to my brother. We meet eyes before he looks to Daryl.

"We cut the son of a bitch open, made sure." Daryl answers. Carol can't stand anymore, so she sits down on the guardrail.

"Oh God." She says, breathing heavily. Lori sits with her. I look to the edge of the woods, hoping the little girl would pop out of the treeline and we could stop panicing. "How could you just leave her out there to begin with?" Carol shoots at Rick. "How could you just leave her?" I go to defend my twin, but he puts out a hand to stop me.

"Those two walkers were on us." He starts. "I-I-I had to draw them off. It was her best chance."

"Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol." Shane pipes up.

"How was she supposed to find her way back on her own?" Carol asks. "She's just a child. She's just a child." I can tell Rick is feeling guilt for leaving Sophia by herself. I feel it, too. He squats down in front of Carol.

"It was my only option. The only choice I could make."

"No one doubts that." I say. Rick looks up at me before looking to the ground.

"My little girl got left in the woods." Carol cries. I take a breath and look up into the sky to keep myself from crying. Rick stands and looks around at the group before walking towards the RV. Shane and Daryl follow him. I pause before joining them. I see Rick walk off down the road. I know he, most likely, wants to be alone, but I can't let him stew in this guilt by himself. I follow him and catch up.

"I don't want company, Vi." He says once he notices me.

"I know." I tell him. "But, you and I are like one person, so it's like you're still by yourself." I try to joke. I know, it's awful. He just sighs and continues to walk. He stops a few minutes later and sits on the hood of a car. I join him. We sit in silence. If he wants to talk about it, he'll talk. But I'm not gonna force it out of him.

"I feel like I messed up, Vi." He finally says. "I shouldn't have left her by herself."

"Don't do that to yourself." I tell him. "You can't change anything now. What's done is done. All we need to focus on now is finding that little girl. When we do, this'll all blow over and everyone will forget it even happened." He looks to me, and I look at him.

"You think so?" He asks. I nod.

"I know so." We both turn back to look at the road for a bit.

"What's with the hatchet?" He asks. I smile at him.

"Well, I need something other than pencils to defend myself." I tell him and he chuckles at my answer.

"I guess so." There is a slight pause before he asks me something else. "So, you and Daryl are gettin' pretty close." He says.

"Well, what can I say? He's a rugged guy in the apocalypse with a motorcycle and a crossbow. What single woman wouldn't want to be close to him at the very least." I chuckle.

"I wouldn't know." He chuckles. "I think he'll be good for you. Although, I thought you and Shane would be good together, so what do I know?"

"Yeah." I say as I think about what happened at the CDC.

"You alright?" He asks. I look over at him. He has a bit of concern on his face.

"Yeah, totally fine." I answer.

"Don't lie to me." He says. "It never works. I can always tell." I think about what to tell him. Him and Shane are friends. How will he react to what I say? "Vi?"

"At the CDC," I start. "When I was showering...Shane came in and tried to...take advantage-" Before I can finish, Rick is up and running back to the group. "Rick!" I call to try and stop him. I try to catch up to him, but it's no use. By the time I get back to the group Rick has already punched Shane in the face.

"Don't you _ever_ touch my sister again!" Rick tells Shane as the man holds his bleeding nose. "You hear me!?" Shane only nods before looking over to me. My eyes grow wide. The group is silent. I look over to Lori, and our eyes meet. She nods in understanding what I had told my brother. Rick walks into the RV, and he is steaming. Chatter around the group goes back to a soft murmur.

"Hey." I hear behind me. I look to see Daryl sitting on the tailgate of a truck. He motions for me to come over, and I do so. I stand between his legs as he sets his crossbow aside. "You told your brother?" He asks me.

"Yeah." I nod. "He could tell I was lying about things being fine at the CDC." He backs up a little and pats the spot in front of him between his legs. I turn around and hop up on the tailgate with the bottom half of my leg dangling off. His arms reach around my middle and pull me closer to him. He rests his forehead on the back of my head.

"At least someone besides me knows about it now." He says. I can feel his breath on the back of my neck. It feels nice.

"Yeah." I sigh. "I feel like a weight's been lifted off my shoulders." We sit there for a while. I never want this to end. I almost think he's asleep until he lifts his head. "So, what are the sleeping arangements?" I ask him.

"Well I do have a blanket here." He says. I turn to look over my shoulder and I see the blanket spread out in the bed of the truck and our bags set up towards the cab to act as pillows.

"Is it gonna be safe?" I ask him. "I mean, we'll be out in the open."

"Don't worry, I'll keep the walkers from gettin' ya." He tells me. I smile at him before jumping off the tailgate. I then turn around and jump back up so I can crawl farther into the bed of the truck. Daryl scoots off to close the tailgate, then climbs back in to join me. He places his crossbow next to him, and I take the hatchet out of my belt so I don't accidentally cut myself. I lay down and try to get comfortable. Daryl lays down behind me. He puts one of his arms under my head and the other around my middle. Suddenly, I feel much more comfortable, and I slip into a deep sleep.

A/N: Ahh! I'm back! I have no promises on getting more chapters out soon, but here it is. What do you think of this chapter and the relationships Violet has. I was always pissed that Lori didn't tell Rick about Shane trying to take advantage of her at the CDC, so I had Violet do it for her. I think as long as Shane doesn't do anything else to Violet, the relationship between Rick and Shane will be similar to the one in the show. It will be a little more strained than that, but it'll be similar for sure. I would love to read your comments and reviews.


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